Building the body: the resilience of nurturing practices to build the immune system with traditional medicine among Purko Maasai.

The benefits of traditional medicine have long been recognized by the World Health Organization. However, as formal education, urbanization, and deforestation increases; the use of traditional medicine has decreased. Within this phenomenon, this paper discusses the continued importance of preventive health practices among the Purko Maasai. Using nurturing as an explanatory framework, qualitative data is analyzed to understand the cultural importance of specific traditional medicine with the goal of building the body with 'engolon' (strength). Results address the importance of nurturing children by administering traditional medicine in order to build the body's immune system. Our data show an interesting gender divide in which both genders play a critical nurturing role, however at different timeframes in the child's life. Findings demonstrate concern with changing frequency of herbal medicine given to children, however there is resiliency within some nurturing components of using preventative traditional medicine to build up children's immune system.

Collective Sensemaking and Healthcare Workers' Ripple Effect Influencing Vaccine Hesitancy in West Michigan.

The social efficacy of vaccines has been a central concern around COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates. As partners on the Vaccinate West Michigan Coalition, we conducted a rapid ethnographic assessment project among adults living in West Michigan. Three case studies are presented to convey the nuanced context around decisions with a focus on the influence of fear, trust, and the ripple effect of healthcare workers' (HCW) beliefs around vaccines. While HCWs' attitudes and beliefs influence their patients, the unique contribution of this study is its focus on how HCWs' perceptions influence friends and family members.

Gender and racial differences in treatment process and outcome among participants in the adolescent community reinforcement approach.

Increasingly, evidence-based treatments are being implemented by community treatment providers, and it is important to understand whether they can be implemented with similar quality and equivalent effectiveness across gender and racial groups. This study examined whether initiation, engagement, dosage, treatment satisfaction, or outcomes for adolescents who received the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) in a large implementation effort were equivalent by gender or racial group. Analyses of data from 2,141 adolescents representing 33 sites across the United States revealed no significant differences for initiation, engagement, or retention by gender or race. Ninety-six percent of the sample reported being satisfied with treatment; however, male adolescents had significantly higher rates of treatment satisfaction than female adolescents, and African American adolescents had significantly higher rates of treatment satisfaction than Caucasian adolescents. A subset of the initial sample (n = 1,819) was used to investigate outcomes. All racial groups had significant increases in days abstinent from alcohol and other drugs and in the percentage in recovery across the measurement period but did not differ from one another at the six-month follow-up. Female adolescents had a higher percentage of days abstinent from alcohol and other drugs and were more likely to be in recovery at the six-month follow-up than male adolescents. Overall, process indicators suggest the intervention was well implemented across gender and racial groups and equally effective across racial groups, with males having equivalent gains in abstinence and recovery compared with females despite males having greater intake severity and differential outcomes at six months.