Anuradha Paranjape

Repaving the road to academic success: the IMeRGE approach to peer mentoring.

In recent years, academic health centers have made a considerable effort to encourage medical students and physicians-in-training to consider academic medicine as a career choice. For physicians, selecting a career in academic medicine may be the first hurdle, but the challenge of successfully maintaining an academic career is perhaps a more formidable task. Mentoring is a much-needed response to this challenge. But the success of traditional mentoring programs at academic institutions is often limited by, among other things, the availability of senior faculty who can serve as mentors. The authors describe the formation and organization of the Internal Medicine Research Group at Emory (IMeRGE), an innovative peer mentoring group within the Division of General Medicine at Emory University. This group, born partially out of the mentoring needs of our women and minority faculty, shared the primary goal of fostering a collaborative atmosphere among junior faculty, while simultaneously acquiring experience through advanced faculty development. The authors present our methods of garnering division support for designated time and financial resources, defining member responsibilities, developing a curriculum, providing peer support, and seeking advisors with expertise in the areas on which we wished to focus. In addition to the development of IMeRGE, the authors provide an overview of the pros and cons of traditional mentoring versus peer mentoring; discuss the challenges faced by IMeRGE and strategies for addressing these issues; and present the paradigm of IMeRGE as a template for alternative forms of academic mentorship.

Intimate Partner Violence: How Does it Impact Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among Immigrant Latinas?

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is prevalent in the general US population, as well as the Latino community. In a cross-sectional study at an immigrant, primary care clinic, we assessed the correlation between IPV history and symptoms of MDD and PTSD in Latino women. We used a structured interview format. Among the 105 women recruited, the 4-week incidence of MDD was 45.7% and the prevalence of PTSD was 19%. Abused women had three times the odds of meeting PTSD criteria than non-abused women. Women meeting PTSD criteria were 10 times likelier to also report MDD. There was no difference in the incidence of MDD among women who reported IPV and those who did not. This study found a correlation of IPV with PTSD, and PTSD with MDD, but not IPV with MDD. Our results indicate a need for mental health interventions in primary care settings for Latina women regardless of IPV history.

Family Violence Exposure and Health Outcomes Among Older African American Women: Do Spirituality and Social Support Play Protective Roles?

BACKGROUND Family violence (FV), spirituality, and social support are salient psychosocial determinants of health. FV is associated with poor health among older African American women. The effect of spirituality and social support levels on the health of older African American women is unknown. METHODS To assess the role of spirituality and social support as culturally relevant determinants of health status for older African American women independent of FV levels, we used a cross-sectional observational study. Two hundred twelve African American women, aged ≥ 50, were interviewed in two urban primary care practices. The measures used were (1) Family Violence Against Older Women (FVOW) scale, (2) Physical and Mental Composite Scores of the Short-Form 8® scale, (3) Medical Outcomes of Social Support survey (MOSS), and (4) Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). Spearman correlation coefficients estimated to test associations among lifetime FV exposure, spirituality, social support, and health status outcomes and multivariate regression models were used to examine the independent effect of spirituality and social support on physical and mental health status, controlling for FV and significant demographic variables. RESULTS Mean participant age was 63.9 years. Higher spirituality levels were significantly associated with better physical health status after adjusting for FV levels and demographic factors (F = 6.17, p = 0.0001). Similarly, higher levels of spirituality and social support both significantly correlated with better mental health status in the multivariate model (F = 13.45, p < 0.0001) that controlled for lifetime FV levels and demographic factors. CONCLUSIONS Spirituality and social support are two potentially modifiable determinants of health for older African American women. Culturally appropriate mechanisms to enhance social support and spirituality levels need to be explored as potential inteventions to improve the health of those African American women who have been exposed to FV.

Psychometric Properties of a New Scale to Assess Family Violence in Older African American Women: The Family Violence Against Older Women (FVOW) Scale

Absence of a conceptually grounded, comprehensive measure for family violence in older women has hindered attempts to define the extent of the problem and its effects on older women’s health. This article reports the development and psychometrics of the Family Violence in Older African American Women Scale, a comprehensive scale to measure family violence in older women. The scale demonstrates two distinct factors: (a) “Abuse” and (b) “Caregiving Failure,” which measure abusive behaviors in the context of a family relationship and caring for older women, respectively. Implications for the use of this scale in research and practice settings are discussed.

Interventions for Abused African-American Women and Their Children

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects millions of women regardless of age, race, and income in the United States; however, low income African-American women are disproportionately affected (Rennison & Planty, 2003). IPV is a major public health issue for African-American women because of the combination of institutional racism and the fact that IPV is more common and violent in this community (Hampton et al., 2003).