Undergraduate Students Study Healthcare Disparities in Ashe County

Brianna McCoy, undergraduate student in East Tennessee State University College of Public Health’s Department of Health Sciences, received two awards for her research project.  The project is titled “Healthcare Disparities in Rural Appalachia” and is designed to draw attention to disparities in her home community of Ashe County, North Carolina. 

Dr. Megan Quinn, Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, is the faculty collaborator on the research.  Together, Brianna and Dr. Quinn received the ETSU Student Faculty Collaborative Grant.  Funds support undergraduate students in completing an organized research project. Austin Ramsey, an Information Systems in Computer Science major, is an additional collaborator. Additionally, Ms. McCoy received a Health and Society Fellowship for this project.  Funding for Society Fellowships is provided by the Charles Koch Foundation.  Funded work must address the theme of free societies and societal well-being and Ms. McCoy’s research is a good fit, since it is focused on societal well-being in Ashe County.   

This project focuses on the experiences of the people of Ashe County, specifically with the health care system. Brianna has spent her summer conducting focus groups and collecting surveys to better understand sociodemographic information and healthcare needs of the of Ashe County residents. After these data are collected, Brianna and Austin will work together to use Geographic Information Systems to create a map highlighting health disparities in Ashe County.

The research funding helps Brianna to provide a small incentive for participants to participate in focus groups and complete surveys and will provide scholarship funds for Ms. McCoy to focus on research this summer. Findings from the project will be disseminated through a research report and presentations in the local community and at the Boland Undergraduate Symposium in 2020.