Advancing Health in Developing Countries: The Role of Social Research

What is the relationship between social science research and public health policy, particularly in the developing world? This question is at the heart of this collection of essays drawn from Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored conferences at Harvard University. The book examines the theoretical impact of social science research as well as specific case studies of successful applied research.

Beginning with a section on broad issues and the conceptualization of behavioral change, the volume then examines the anti-smoking movement in the United States; measures to prevent and control HIV infection in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States; anti-malaria measures; and the application of dietary management and lot quality assurance sampling to public health issues in Peru. The volume concludes with a section re-examining ways social science research can have an impact on improving public health. Scholars and researchers as well as policy makers involved with health research and international development will find this collection particularly valuable.

Preface
Introduction: Addressing the Health Transition Research Agenda: Can We Connect Findings with Action?
The Conceptualization of Behavioral Change
An Anthropological Approach to Social Science Research on the Health Transition
Behavioral Medicine, Health Behavior, and Health Maintenance Strategies: Applicability to Disease Prevention in the Developing World
Research Possibilities on Facilitating the Health Care Transition
Case Studies
The Rise and Fall of the Cigarette: A Brief History of the Antismoking Movement in the United States
Using Social Science to Prevent and Control HIV Infection: The Experience of Britain, Sweden, and the United States
The Malaria Transition and the Role of Social Science Research
Dietary Management of Diarrhea in Peru
Assessment of Health Program Performance to Improve Management: Utilization of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling to Increase Immunization Coverage in Peru
Social Science Research and the Improvement of Health
Health and Development: What Can Research Contribute?
Potential of for Social Science Research to Inform and Influence the Delivery of Health Care in Lesser Developed Countries
The Health Transition and Social Science Research: A Summary of Workshop Proceedings
Index

LINCOLN C. CHEN is Taro Takemi Professor of International Health, Director of International Health Programs, and Director of the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard University. He has published more than 100 articles on international health.

ARTHUR KLEINMAN is Chair of the Department of Social Medicine, Professor of Medical Anthropology, and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University. He is the author of The Illness Narratives (1988), Social Origins of Distress and Disease (1986), and Advances in Mood Disorders (with J. Becker, 1990). His works in progress include Health and Social Change in International Perspective and Pain as Human Experience: An Anthropological Perspective.

NORMA C. WARE is Instructor in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously Associate Dean of Radcliffe College, she specializes in medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry.