Welcome!

Welcome to the new Global Health and Underserved Populations (GHUP) Web site.

GHUP's multidisciplinary staff collaborates with a broad range of federal agencies, corporate and philanthropic partners, professional organizations, and academic institutions to:

	Conduct outreach activities to at-risk populations.
	Provide education to help prevent health and social problems.
	Conduct health research through a variety of sponsored projects.
	Provide a range of scientific and technical services on a contractual or fee-for-service basis to: Local and state government agencies Federal agencies Community and not-for-profit organizations Individual physicians and researchers

MATH (Men of Asia Testing for HIV)

Many Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) men in the U.S. at high risk for HIV have never undergone serological testing. However, little is known about factors that influence testing among AAPI men. Because delayed testing is often associated with an initial presentation of advanced disease, higher health care costs, and disease morbidity, studies of testing behaviors are vital. The five-year MATH study enables GHUP staff to work in collaboration with one national AAPI health advocacy organization and eight AAPI community-based organizations (CBOs) in the U.S. to: (1) estimate the prevalence and incidence of HIV infection among AAPI MSM; (2) to describe the socio-cultural and individual-level correlates of HIV testing and knowledge of HIV infection status among AAPI MSM; (3) to examine the socio-cultural and individual level correlates of HIV risk among AAPI MSM; and (4) to evaluate a consortium model framework for conducting scientific, community-based HIV research. Ultimately, GHUP hopes to learn more about strategies for increasing HIV testing that will help to reduce death rates and decrease health care costs among AAPI MSM.

SEAHEP (The Southeast Asian Health Education Project)

SEAHEP examines the influence of numerous factors – ethnicity, date and nature of immigration, socioeconomic status, degree of acculturation, cultural proscriptions on shameful behavior, age, country of birth, gang participation, and social marginality – on substance abuse and HIV-related risk practices among the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian communities in the Washington, DC area. The project combines ethnographic qualitative strategies with quantitative approaches in order to provide data on both risk practices and the socio-cultural framework in which these practices are embedded.

SAI (The South Africa Initiative)
A supplement to SEAHEP, SAI estimates substance use/abuse and HIV-related risk attitudes and behaviors among adult South Africans and examines the influence of socio-cultural factors on these attitudes and behaviors.

DVP (Domestic Violence Project)
Another supplement to SEAHEP, DVP is a three-year study that works to improve the transition from policy to practice of programs designed to prevent intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and child mistreatment in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

DC-MAPS is a five-year, two-phase project that targets self-identified Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese adult gay/bisexual men and MSM living in the Washington, DC area. The study examines the role that socio-cultural forces such as sexual mores, shame, and stigma play on sexual identity and orientation, as well as the relationship between shame (or stigma) and sexuality in substance use/abuse and HIV-related risk attitudes and practices among the target populations. This research is of great significance because, compared to MSM in other racial/ethnic groups, AAPI MSM have the second highest proportion of cumulative AIDS cases.

CMMS (Chinese Male Migrant Study)

The GHUP research group conducts the two-year CMMS in collaboration with the China Center for Reproductive Health Technical Instruction and Training. The study seeks to describe drug use/abuse and HIV-related risk among 200 adult male migrants in Shanghai, China, and examine the role that socio-cultural forces such as economic survival, shame, and stigma have in these risk behaviors among the sample population.

Southern African Initiative
The Southern African Initiative utilizes an AUDIO-CASI instrument (a computerized questionnaire) to elicite a better estimate of the drug use and HIV-related risk behaviors in a sample of South Africans.