Waleed Hazbun
Egypt
School of Arts and Sciences, Bachelor's program >>View Final Report
Any Type I diabetic would attest to the fact that the treatment of diabetes, by its very nature, is wholly integrated within one’s lifestyle, attitude, and personality. Moreover, the auto-immune nature of its contraction, the general lack of scientific consensus as to the relative significance of its major environmental (or genetic) causes, and the notion that the disease is “manageable” relative to other hormonal imbalances have allowed for the convergence of diabetes clinical research endeavors to the goal of finding effective management plans.
Clinics in the United States have implemented tried-and-true educational programs and counseling initiatives that address the importance of lifestyle choices like hygiene, diet, and sexual health for managing blood glucose levels. A multitude of factors that shape our healthcare system, however, allow for income disparities to largely hamper the implementation of these plans among low income populations, which attests to general trends of relative mismanagement of blood glucose levels among these populations. Given this largely secular “educational” strategy for diabetes management in the US, the Egyptian experience of healthcare dissemination through religious (Islamic) institutions, and a greater identification of healthcare providers in Egypt with religious and cultural norms among patients, has allowed for a very different approach to diabetes management. My goal was to explore this approach to healthcare dissemination as it relates to diabetic care, the relative extent to which religious and cultural norms influence dissemination and patient attitudes in Egypt. >> See all Spring 2006 Framework Award winners | 
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