Clinical trial NCT00339391: Socioenvironmental Determinants of Psychological Functioning, Mental Health and AIDS in Mali
Official title: Socio-Environmental Determinants of Psychological Functioning, Mental Health and AIDS in Mali
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: AIDS
Stress
Keywords: Adjustment
Environmental Complexity
Mental Illness
Non-literate
West Africa
Stress
Knowledge
Mental Health
AIDS
Lead sponsor: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
Sponsor class: NIH
First posted: 2006-06-21
Enrollment: 1002
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 16
Maximum age (years): 50
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: OTHER

Brief summary: This project is a collaboration between the Centre Regional de Medecine Traditionnelle (CRMT) of the Malian National Institute of Public Health Research (INRSP) and the Section on Socioenvironmental Studies (SSES). These units developed a three-pronged protocol reflecting their joint and individual concerns:

1. Effects of occupational complexity on psychological functioning. The project tests a theory derived from previous SSES research demonstrating that in industrialized societies doing relatively self-directed, substantively complex work increases self-directed orientations to self, society and family and promotes effective intellectual functioning. It uses sociological survey methodology to determine the generalizability of this theory to an essentially pre-literate, preindustrial society.
2. Effects of work-related stress on mental health. Earlier SSES work demonstrated that stressful work conditions lead to distress in industrialized societies. This project extends the investigation of these effects to a non-industrialized setting. It also extends the investigation of work-related stress to include work-related migration, resting a hypothesis that relates equally to SSES and CRMT concerns: that individuals from rural ethnic groups with a cultural tradition of work-related migration will show fewer mental health problems when migrating for nontraditional work than those from cultures without such a tradition. Mental health problems are assessed through: a) adaptations of standard survey-based psychological measures of components of distress, b) general and culture-specific survey-based psychiatric screening questions, and c) a psychiatric interview conducted by a CRMT psychiatrist trained in internationally accepted diagnostic procedures and knowledgeable about local cultures.
3. The effects of migration and cultural and socioeconomic factors on AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. The survey addresses concern regarding the degree of knowledge about the nature of AIDS among rural Malians who are relatively isolated from urban oriented sources of information about culturally non-traditional issues. It also examines how socio-cultural background and migration for work affect AIDS related attitudes and self-reported behaviors in an African society where estimates of HIV prevalence are still relatively low (less than 2%), compared to those of other sub-Saharan African countries.

Although these prongs are distinguishable, each requires a longitudinal design, a representative sample, extensive information about responders' social and cultural backgrounds, occupational histories, work conditions, and personal orientations and beliefs. Because of their overlapping theoretical approaches and methodological requirements, combining them in one project increases the richness and efficiency of the data collected for each.

Detailed description: This project is a collaboration between the Centre Regional de Medecine Traditionnelle (CRMT) of the Malian National Institute of Public Health Research (INRSP) and the Section on Socioenvironmental Studies (SSES). These units developed a three-pronged protocol reflecting their joint and individual concerns:

1. Effects of occupational complexity on psychological functioning. The project tests a theory derived from previous SSES research demonstrating that in industrialized societies doing relatively self-directed, substantively complex work increases self-directed orientations to self, society and family and promotes effective intellectual functioning. It uses sociological survey methodology to determine the generalizability of this theory to an essentially pre-literate, preindustrial society.
2. Effects of work-related stress on mental health. Earlier SSES work demonstrated that stressful work conditions lead to distress in industrialized societies. This project extends the investigation of these effects to a non-industrialized setting. It also extends the investigation of work-related stress to include work-related migration, testing a hypothesis that relates equally to SSES and CRMT concerns: that individuals from rural ethnic groups with a cultural tradition of work-related migration will show fewer mental health problems when migrating for nontraditional work than those from cultures without such a tradition. Mental health problems are assessed through: a) adaptations of standard survey-based psychological measures of components of distress, b) general and culture-specific survey-based psychiatric screening questions, and c) a psychiatric interview conducted by a CRMT psychiatrist trained in internationally accepted diagnostic procedures and knowledgeable about local cultures.
3. The effects of migration and cultural and socioeconomic factors on AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. The survey addresses concern regarding the degree of knowledge about the nature of AIDS among rural Malians who are relatively isolated from urban oriented sources of information about culturally non-traditional issues. It also examines how socio-cultural background and migration for work affect AIDS related attitudes and self-reported behaviors in an African society where estimates of HIV prevalence are still relatively low (less than 2%), compared to those of other sub-Saharan African countries.

Although these prongs are distinguishable, each requires a longitudinal design, a representative sample, extensive information about responders' social and cultural backgrounds, occupational histories, work conditions, and personal orientations and beliefs. Because of their overlapping theoretical approaches and methodological requirements, combining them in one project increases the richness and efficiency of the data collected for each.

The division of responsibility between SSES and CRMT is as follows:

1. The survey questionnaire is the product of SSES/CRMT collaboration. It has been check by Malian linguists, extensively pretested by CRMT, and found feasible to administer and likely to provide highly reliable data with sufficient variance to permit the testing of our hypotheses. The project has been independently review and approved by the relevant Malian IRB the Ethics Committee and the Medical School of the University of Mali.
2. Data Collection involves conducting structured sociological interviews with representative rural samples from three Malian ethnic groups, carrying out psychiatric interviews with respondents who fail the psychiatric screen. The collection, processing and coding of the data is the responsibility of CRMT.
3. Data Analysis is primarily the responsibility of the SSES, which receives the data in a form in which individual respondents cannot be identified.

Eligibility criteria: * INCLUSION CRITERIA:

The study sample is a representative sample, based on Malian census data, of approximately 1000 respondents, age 16-50, drawn equally from each of the three generally pre-literate ethnic groups - the Dogon, the Peulh and the Bozo.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Villages must not have heavily visited tourist attractions.

Primary outcomes:
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Bamako
country: Mali
facility: Centre Regional de Medecine Traditionnelle
Study officials:
affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
name: Kathleen Merikangas, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Kessler RC, Zhao S, Blazer DG, Swartz M. Prevalence, correlates, and course of minor depression and major depression in the National Comorbidity Survey. J Affect Disord. 1997 Aug;45(1-2):19-30. doi: 10.1016/s0165-0327(97)00056-6.
citation: Maiga MY, Diarra B, Guindo A, Maiga YI, Fofano O, Bougoudogo F. [Seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) in Mali on 3,496 sera]. Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 1993;86(1):16-20. French.