San Jose State students and alumni researchers broke down the effects of the coronavirus on vulnerable communities, including Black and low-income communities, in the Student Union Thursday.
The inaugural event was a collaboration between the university’s Division of Research and Innovation, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the McNair Scholars Program, which assists first-generation, low-income or underrepresented students apply to doctoral programs and helps them in their research projects.
The McNair Scholars Program is currently accepting applications through its website until Oct. 30. Upon approval, students will engage with mentors and begin research under the tutelages of professors.
During the forum, each of the researchers gave presentations on their research and results.
HIV
Starting off, humanities senior Justise Wattree shared his research on HIV care and the importance of social justice when addressing HIV in Black communities.
“As a Black person and as a Black queer person, HIV really affects us,” Wattree said. “It affects a lot of people in America but also people in Africa as well. HIV is a Black issue.”
Wattree said, Black people are three times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 and two times more likely to die from it.
He said COVID-19 created instability in terms of income housing, which resulted in fewer Black households having access to health treatments.
Wattree said economic instability caused a 17% decrease in HIV diagnosis during the shelter-in-place mandate, which began in March 2020.
That means that there was a lack of access to HIV testing, which is important because testing is the first step toward HIV prevention, he said.
Wattree found in his research that community organizations are pivotal in HIV prevention because they are there to identify the social inequities within Black communities.
He said social justice is a core aspect of community organizations because it’s a tool that can address the dialect between social inequities and HIV experience.
Food insecurity
After Wattree presented his research, Vanessa Reeves, a San Jose State alumna and public health research assistant, shared her research on the heightened vulnerability of food insecurity within Black communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reeves explained food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active healthy life.
She said prior to COVID-19, 11% of U.S. households were food insecure, but during the pandemic, that number increased to 12.5%.
Reeves’ research found that 21.7% of Black households during the pandemic experienced food insecurity.
She said that is because of deep structural inequities that occurred during the pandemic that exacerbated food insecurity in low-income communities.
“My grandma had so many chronic diseases and the reason for that is because she didn’t eat healthy,” Reeves said. “She passed away because of a chronic disease so being able to do this research has really empowered myself and my understanding of the importance of eating healthy.”
Reeves proposed a response to the social determinants that leads to food insecurity in minority communities.
She proposed the community economic development model, where local economic development creates jobs and acts as a way to eliminate economic inequities.
Her current research focuses on Black-woman farming, enforcing the idea of community economic development through a community garden market.
Reeves said the market provides fresh produce and it directly combats social inequities and health disparities in low-income communities.
Throughout her research, members of the community-garden market shared how working on community gardens positively rewrote the dark history that Black people have with food and farming.
Marijuana therapy
Following Reeves’ presentation, psychology senior Ariana Esfahani, presented her research on marijuana therapy.
The focus of Esfahani’s research is how marijuana therapy can play a role for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, tourette syndrome and other neurological disorders.
Her research focused on evaluating how the quality of life differs between children on the spectrum who are enrolled in marijuana therapy and those who are not.
The results of Esfahani’s research showed that there is a correlation with children enrolled in marijuana therapy having a greater quality of life than those who are not.
Patients who are under the spectrum and struggle with uncontrollable impulsive behavior, self injury, aggression or seizures have shown to have a higher quality of life under this treatment, according to her research.
“The overall trend I’m seeing is that more positive reviews on the therapy than not and higher quality of life overall,” Esfahani said. “I always hear this one quote, they’re always saying, ‘My life has changed’ and I’m very happy for those who do have success.”
One of the challenges Esfahani discussed when it comes to marijuana therapy is the social stigma around marijuana being a Schedule I drug under the U.S. federal system.
Schedule I drugs are drugs with no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website.
She said that means families living in states where marijuana is illegal at the state level don’t have access to that kind of therapy for their children.
Esfahani said one of her inspirations for her research is removing that controversy surrounding marijuana, making that treatment a more accessible option for parents with children under the spectrum.
Caregiving
The final presenter, science and public health senior Jessica Uche Umeh, focused on how COVID-19 has affected the current state of caregiving regarding older adults living with a form of dementia under the supervision of a loved one or caregiver.
Uche Umeh discussed the role that healthcare reform plays in identifying barriers and improving the quality of care given to the older population.
“You never know when someone develops a chronic illness and just being prepared and knowing what resources you have, if you have to become a caregiver to support your loved one is a great place to start,” Uche Umeh said.
She said through her research, she was able to identify some of the barriers that affect quality of care that prevent caregivers themselves from sufficiently providing for their patients.
During the height of the pandemic, Uche Umeh found that the turnover rate for caregivers had increased, abandoning their patients.
Uche Umeh identified some of the reasons why that was the case, citing burnout, insufficient pay and 20-hour work days.
“With COVID-19, moving home, I was able to see for myself, my grandmother's state of caregiving was very digressed,” Uche Umeh said.
She said one of the reasons for caregiver turnover rates is because of a lack of regulation and resources around caregiving.
With the results of her research, Uche Umeh proposed several potential solutions to help both patients and caregivers.
Uche Umeh proposed giving caregivers medical or other work benefits, outside educational opportunities to further their training and stricter work regulations around hiring.
Wattree is currently researching HIV programming within Black churches. His research looks at how social justice motivates Black churches to address HIV and how social justice is motivating churches to coalition form with outside organizations that are not necessarily faith based.
What’s next?
Reeves said she will continue her research on Black-woman agrarianism, which analyzes Black woman narratives and how they’re using their voices and resources within their organizations to combat health disparities and social inequities within Black communities.
Esfahani plans to pursue a doctorate degree in clinical psychology at Stanford University. She currently works as a behavior technician manager at the Autism Impact Circle, an Oakland-based autism treatment center.
Uche Umeh said after receiving her bachelors, plans on pursuing her doctorate degree while continuing to research private nursing home facilities.
