Results from a Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Survey in Two Malaria Transmission Foci of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Metropolitan Santo Domingo has accounted for a majority of reported malaria cases in the Dominican Republic in recent years. To inform malaria control and elimination efforts, a cross-sectional survey of malaria knowledge, attitudes, and practices collected 489 adult household-level questionnaires across 20 neighborhoods in the city's two main transmission foci, Los Tres Brazos (n = 286) and La Ciénaga (n = 203), in December 2020. Overall, most residents (69%) were aware of the problem of malaria in Santo Domingo, but less than half knew that mosquitos transmit the disease (46%) or took any correct preventative measure (45%).

Prevalence of Diabetes, Prediabetes, and Associated Risk Factors Among Agricultural Village Residents in the Dominican Republic.

This study examined the prevalence and risk factors of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes among residents of agricultural settlement villages (bateyes) in the Dominican Republic. From March to April 2016, a cross-sectional, multi-stage cluster survey was conducted across the country's three agricultural regions (southwest, east, and north). At selected households, an adult completed a questionnaire to assess demographics, diabetes knowledge, and care, and two household residents of any age provided finger-prick blood samples that were analyzed for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c).

Rapid ethnographic assessment for potential anti-malarial mass drug administration in an outbreak area of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Background: In the Dominican Republic, a recent outbreak of malaria in the capital, Santo Domingo, threatens efforts to eliminate the disease. Mass drug administration (MDA) has been proposed as one strategy to reduce transmission. The success of MDA is contingent upon high levels of acceptance among the target population.

Malaria outbreak response in urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: lessons learned for community engagement.

Community engagement is crucial for public health initiatives, yet it remains an under-studied process within national disease elimination programs. This report shares key lessons learned for community engagement practices during a malaria outbreak response in the Los Tres Brazos neighborhood of urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 2015-2016. In this two-year period, 233 cases of malaria were reported-more than seven times the number of cases (31) reported in the previous two years.

Perceived discrimination in bateyes of the Dominican Republic: results from the Everyday Discrimination Scale and implications for public health programs.

Background: Discrimination is a major driver of health disparities among minority groups and can impede the reach of public health programs. In the Dominican Republic, residents of bateyes, or agricultural 'company towns,' often face barriers to health care. This study examined the extent of perceived discrimination among batey populations and places the findings within the context of disease elimination efforts.

Prevalence of malaria and lymphatic filariasis in bateyes of the Dominican Republic.

Background: The island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR), is the only remaining malaria-endemic island in the Caribbean and accounts for 95% of the lymphatic filariasis (LF) burden in the Americas. Both countries aim to eliminate the diseases by 2020. Migration from Haiti, where both diseases are more prevalent, may promote transmission in the DR.

Building Trust through Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination: A Platform to Address Social Exclusion and Human Rights in the Dominican Republic.

Hispaniola, the Caribbean island that includes the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR), accounts for 90% of lymphatic filariasis (LF) in the Americas. Both countries have committed to LF elimination by 2020. In the DR, LF occurs mainly in , or company towns that historically hosted migrant laborers from Haiti.

Cholera control and anti-Haitian stigma in the Dominican Republic: from migration policy to lived experience.

As cholera spread from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants, a largely undocumented and stigmatized population in Dominican society, became a focus of public health concern. Concurrent to the epidemic, the Dominican legislature enacted new documentation requirements. This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of anti-Haitian stigma in the Dominican Republic from June to August 2012.

Social stressors, social support, and mental health among Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.

This mixed-method study explored the social world of Haitian migrants, examining forms of social support and social stress, as well as their relationship to mental health. Among six Haitian migrant communities in the Cibao Valley of the Dominican Republic, a community-based survey (n = 127) was conducted to assess migration experiences, current stressors, mental health, and functioning. In addition, to explore perceptions and experiences of migration, social interactions, and mental health, the study drew upon in-depth interviews and free-listing activities among Haitian migrants, as well as cognitive interviews with select survey participants.

Prevalence of cholera risk factors between migrant Haitians and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic.

Objective: To determine whether cholera risk factor prevalence in the Dominican Republic can be explained by nationality, independent of other factors, given the vulnerability of many Haitians in the country and the need for targeted prevention.

Methods: A cross-sectional, observational household survey (103 Haitian and 260 Dominican) was completed in 18 communities in July 2012. The survey included modules for demographics, knowledge, socioeconomic status, and access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure.

Reflechi twòp--thinking too much: description of a cultural syndrome in Haiti's Central Plateau.

A rich Haitian ethnopsychology has been described, detailing concepts of personhood, explanatory models of illness, and links between mind and body. However, little research has engaged explicitly with mental illness, and that which does focuses on the Kreyòl term fou (madness), a term that psychiatrists associate with schizophrenia and other psychoses. More work is needed to characterize potential forms of mild-to-moderate mental illness.

Perceived discrimination, humiliation, and mental health: a mixed-methods study among Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.

Objective: Many Haitian migrants live and work as undocumented laborers in the Dominican Republic. This study examines the legacy of anti-Haitian discrimination in the Dominican Republic and association of discrimination with mental health among Haitian migrants.

Design: This study used mixed methods to generate hypotheses for associations between discrimination and mental health of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.

Strategies for assessing mental health in Haiti: local instrument development and transcultural translation.

The lack of culturally appropriate mental health assessment instruments is a major barrier to screening and evaluating efficacy of interventions. Simple translation of questionnaires produces misleading and inaccurate conclusions. Multiple alternate approaches have been proposed, and this study compared two approaches tested in rural Haiti.

Idioms of distress, ethnopsychology, and the clinical encounter in Haiti's Central Plateau.

Haiti's 2010 earthquake mobilized mental health and psychosocial interventions from across the globe. However, failure to understand how psychological distress is communicated between lay persons and health workers in rural clinics, where most Haitians access care, has been a major limitation in providing mental health services. The goal of this study was to map idioms of distress onto Haitian ethnopsychologies in a way that promotes improved communication between lay persons and clinicians in rural Haiti.

Explanatory models and mental health treatment: is vodou an obstacle to psychiatric treatment in rural Haiti?

Vodou as an explanatory framework for illness has been considered an impediment to biomedical psychiatric treatment in rural Haiti by some scholars and Haitian professionals. According to this perspective, attribution of mental illness to supernatural possession drives individuals to seek care from houngan-s (Vodou priests) and other folk practitioners, rather than physicians, psychologists, or psychiatrists. This study investigates whether explanatory models of mental illness invoking supernatural causation result in care-seeking from folk practitioners and resistance to biomedical treatment.