Psychology and neuroscience have contributed significantly to advances in understanding compassio... more Psychology and neuroscience have contributed significantly to advances in understanding compassion. In contrast, little attention has been given to the epidemiology of compassion. The human experience of compassion is heterogeneous with respect to time, place, and person. Therefore, compassion has an epidemiology, although little is known about the factors that account for spatial or temporal clustering of compassion or how these factors might be harnessed to promote and realize a more compassionate world. We reviewed the scientific literature to describe what is known about “risk factors” for compassion towards others. Studies were included if they used quantitative methods, treated compassion as an outcome, and used measures of compassion that included elements of empathy and action to alleviate suffering. Eighty-two studies met the inclusion criteria; 89 potential risk factors were tested 418 times for association with compassion. Significant associations with compassion were fou...
In Sub-Saharan Africa despite the significant resources that have been allocated for family plann... more In Sub-Saharan Africa despite the significant resources that have been allocated for family planning (FP) programs unmet need for FP remains high and sustained FP use remains elusive. In Mali nearly twenty years of FP programming efforts have led to high levels of knowledge about various methods of FP yet increases in unmet need have outpaced increases in contraceptive prevalence. The way the reproductive health community has defined unmet need has led to an emphasis on supply side and service delivery issues. Less consideration has been given to the social contexts and relationships within which individuals and couples make reproductive health decisions including important social influencers such as family members friends and community leaders. The USAID-funded project which loosely translates to “friends connecting friends through social networks” was designed to assess the effectiveness of a set of social network interventions to address unmet need for FP and improve reproductive...
Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 2021
Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, understanding the virus and necessary measures... more Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, understanding the virus and necessary measures to prevent infection have evolved. While effective preventative measures for COVID-19 have been identified, there are also identifiable barriers to implementation. Objective: Explore the access to information, knowledge, and prevention methods and barriers of COVID-19 among Somali, Karen, and Latinx immigrant community members in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA through analysis of in-depth interviews. Methods: Data were collected through 32 interviews via phone, video conference on a computer, or in-person with Somali, Karen, and Latinx adults to understand the experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in each group’s native language. All participants were over the age of 18, and identified as Somali, Karen, and Latinx refugee or immigrant. Interview protocol contained 9 main questions including probes. Data were analyzed through use of the qualitative analysis software, Atlas.ti using pheno...
Background: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were designed to better understand the community’s vie... more Background: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were designed to better understand the community’s views and preferences around maternity care to design a communications campaign to increase facility deliveries and skilled attendance at birth in the three county catchment areas of Kapoeta Civil Hospital. Methods: Twelve FGDs were conducted in Kapoeta South, Kapoeta East, and Kapoeta North counties. Four South Sudanese facilitators (two women, two men) were hired and trained to conduct sex-segregated FGDs. Each had 8-10 participants. Participants were adult women of reproductive age (18-49 years) and adult men (18+ years) married to women of reproductive age. Results: The majority of participants’ most recent births took place at home, though most reportedly intended to give birth in a health facility and overwhelmingly desire a facility birth next time. Husbands and the couple’s mothers are the primary decision-makers about where a woman delivers. More men than women preferred home birth...
Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) continues to increase across sub-Saharan Africa, ... more Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) continues to increase across sub-Saharan Africa, despite high rates of knowledge and efforts to increase access. Evidently, unmet need does not represent demand, nor does 20 years of programming translate to adoption and sustained use. The Tkponon Jikuagou project in Benin tests an innovative approach to reduce unmet need by leveraging social networks to influence attitudes, beliefs, and social/gender norms around fertility and FP. Methods: Formative research was conducted in Mali and Benin to better understand network dynamics and the social context in which couples make FP decisions. Quantitative methods included household census and social network analysis. Qualitative methods included ethnography, participatory community mapping, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and key informant interviews. Additionally, a literature review of theoretical and conceptual stigma frameworks was conducted. Results: Formative research revealed that p...
Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) in Mali continues to increase, despite high rates... more Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) in Mali continues to increase, despite high rates of FP knowledge and numerous efforts to increase access. The Terikunda Jkulu project is testing an innovative approach to reduce unmet need for FP by leveraging social networks to influence attitudes, beliefs, and social norms around fertility and FP. This study was conducted to understand the dynamics between network size, function, composition, and density and the diffusion of ideas about FP and fertility. Methods: Ethnographic research was conducted in two villages with contrasting levels of FP use and unmet need for FP. Qualitative research activities included focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, social mapping, and network analysis via pile sorting. Results: In the village with low CPR and low unmet need, large, dense networks reinforced negative messages and misinformation about FP. FP users in this community had small, open networks that enabled them to use secretly. In ...
Background: Cote d'Ivoire has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in West Africa. In 2... more Background: Cote d'Ivoire has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in West Africa. In 2007, a program was initiated to integrate prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) services into routine antenatal care (ANC) at public health facilities in Bouak, the country's second largest city. The purpose of this study was to understand how HIV-positive women's life circumstances and interactions with the health care system influence their ability to adhere to ARV prophylaxis during pregnancy, among those receiving care at integrated clinics. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using focused ethnography and principles of grounded theory as a methodological framework. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 25 HIV-positive women and five midwives. Study participants were recruited from four public ANC clinics in Bouak. Analysis was facilitated by qualitative data analysis software. Results: Women are highly motivated to prevent HIV transmission to t...
Psychology and neuroscience have contributed significantly to advances in understanding compassio... more Psychology and neuroscience have contributed significantly to advances in understanding compassion. In contrast, little attention has been given to the epidemiology of compassion. The human experience of compassion is heterogeneous with respect to time, place, and person. Therefore, compassion has an epidemiology, although little is known about the factors that account for spatial or temporal clustering of compassion or how these factors might be harnessed to promote and realize a more compassionate world. We reviewed the scientific literature to describe what is known about “risk factors” for compassion towards others. Studies were included if they used quantitative methods, treated compassion as an outcome, and used measures of compassion that included elements of empathy and action to alleviate suffering. Eighty-two studies met the inclusion criteria; 89 potential risk factors were tested 418 times for association with compassion. Significant associations with compassion were fou...
In Sub-Saharan Africa despite the significant resources that have been allocated for family plann... more In Sub-Saharan Africa despite the significant resources that have been allocated for family planning (FP) programs unmet need for FP remains high and sustained FP use remains elusive. In Mali nearly twenty years of FP programming efforts have led to high levels of knowledge about various methods of FP yet increases in unmet need have outpaced increases in contraceptive prevalence. The way the reproductive health community has defined unmet need has led to an emphasis on supply side and service delivery issues. Less consideration has been given to the social contexts and relationships within which individuals and couples make reproductive health decisions including important social influencers such as family members friends and community leaders. The USAID-funded project which loosely translates to “friends connecting friends through social networks” was designed to assess the effectiveness of a set of social network interventions to address unmet need for FP and improve reproductive...
Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 2021
Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, understanding the virus and necessary measures... more Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, understanding the virus and necessary measures to prevent infection have evolved. While effective preventative measures for COVID-19 have been identified, there are also identifiable barriers to implementation. Objective: Explore the access to information, knowledge, and prevention methods and barriers of COVID-19 among Somali, Karen, and Latinx immigrant community members in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA through analysis of in-depth interviews. Methods: Data were collected through 32 interviews via phone, video conference on a computer, or in-person with Somali, Karen, and Latinx adults to understand the experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in each group’s native language. All participants were over the age of 18, and identified as Somali, Karen, and Latinx refugee or immigrant. Interview protocol contained 9 main questions including probes. Data were analyzed through use of the qualitative analysis software, Atlas.ti using pheno...
Background: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were designed to better understand the community’s vie... more Background: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were designed to better understand the community’s views and preferences around maternity care to design a communications campaign to increase facility deliveries and skilled attendance at birth in the three county catchment areas of Kapoeta Civil Hospital. Methods: Twelve FGDs were conducted in Kapoeta South, Kapoeta East, and Kapoeta North counties. Four South Sudanese facilitators (two women, two men) were hired and trained to conduct sex-segregated FGDs. Each had 8-10 participants. Participants were adult women of reproductive age (18-49 years) and adult men (18+ years) married to women of reproductive age. Results: The majority of participants’ most recent births took place at home, though most reportedly intended to give birth in a health facility and overwhelmingly desire a facility birth next time. Husbands and the couple’s mothers are the primary decision-makers about where a woman delivers. More men than women preferred home birth...
Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) continues to increase across sub-Saharan Africa, ... more Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) continues to increase across sub-Saharan Africa, despite high rates of knowledge and efforts to increase access. Evidently, unmet need does not represent demand, nor does 20 years of programming translate to adoption and sustained use. The Tkponon Jikuagou project in Benin tests an innovative approach to reduce unmet need by leveraging social networks to influence attitudes, beliefs, and social/gender norms around fertility and FP. Methods: Formative research was conducted in Mali and Benin to better understand network dynamics and the social context in which couples make FP decisions. Quantitative methods included household census and social network analysis. Qualitative methods included ethnography, participatory community mapping, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and key informant interviews. Additionally, a literature review of theoretical and conceptual stigma frameworks was conducted. Results: Formative research revealed that p...
Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) in Mali continues to increase, despite high rates... more Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) in Mali continues to increase, despite high rates of FP knowledge and numerous efforts to increase access. The Terikunda Jkulu project is testing an innovative approach to reduce unmet need for FP by leveraging social networks to influence attitudes, beliefs, and social norms around fertility and FP. This study was conducted to understand the dynamics between network size, function, composition, and density and the diffusion of ideas about FP and fertility. Methods: Ethnographic research was conducted in two villages with contrasting levels of FP use and unmet need for FP. Qualitative research activities included focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, social mapping, and network analysis via pile sorting. Results: In the village with low CPR and low unmet need, large, dense networks reinforced negative messages and misinformation about FP. FP users in this community had small, open networks that enabled them to use secretly. In ...
Background: Cote d'Ivoire has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in West Africa. In 2... more Background: Cote d'Ivoire has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in West Africa. In 2007, a program was initiated to integrate prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) services into routine antenatal care (ANC) at public health facilities in Bouak, the country's second largest city. The purpose of this study was to understand how HIV-positive women's life circumstances and interactions with the health care system influence their ability to adhere to ARV prophylaxis during pregnancy, among those receiving care at integrated clinics. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using focused ethnography and principles of grounded theory as a methodological framework. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 25 HIV-positive women and five midwives. Study participants were recruited from four public ANC clinics in Bouak. Analysis was facilitated by qualitative data analysis software. Results: Women are highly motivated to prevent HIV transmission to t...
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Papers by Heather Buesseler