Date of Award
1-1-2014
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)
College/School/Department
School of Public Health
Content Description
1 online resource (v, 75 pages) : illustrations.
Dissertation/Thesis Chair
Janine M Jurkowski
Committee Members
Elizabeth Vasquez, Edith Williams, Diane L Kamen
Keywords
Gullah, Health Related Quality of Life, Lupus, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic lupus erythematosus, Health and race, Gullahs, African Americans, Caucasian race
Subject Categories
Public Health
Abstract
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus has profound effects on women, families and society causing a loss of self-esteem, a loss in earning potential and higher health care costs. SLE affects women during their most productive years of life, causing women to further experience particularly poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as well as financial hardship. The purpose of this study is to investigate the associations among corticosteroid use, emotional and physical health, and work and regular daily activities in a racially-and ethnically-diverse sample of women with SLE and controls using data from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Lupus Database. This study sample consisted of 284 women (224 women with SLE and 60 controls): 57 (20%) were Caucasian American, 86 (30%) were non-Gullah African American and 141 (50%) were Gullah African American. All analyses were performed using version 9.3 of SAS. Results of this study indicate that when compared to emotional health, physical health has a statistically significant larger association with decreased work and regular daily activities compared with emotional health. Additionally, significant ethnic differences were observed in the association between emotional health and work and regular daily activities among women with SLE. Emotional health outcomes were better for women with SLE when compared with controls. These high scores may be influenced by racially- and culturally- related factors such as unique disease coping mechanisms, the adoption of the Superwoman role and behaviors related to cultural accommodation.
Recommended Citation
Applyrs, Dorcey Lanier, "Corticosteroid use, emotional health and work/regular daily activities : ethnic differences in women with systemic lupus erythematosus" (2014). Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024). 1068.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/legacy-etd/1068