Research in Africa
Project Title: Food Security Among Resettled Refugees
PSTC Investigators: Hadley, Craig Ph. D.
Description: This project will produce estimates of the magnitude of the food insecurity situation in two resettled refugee communities, and will be the largest study of refugee health, and the only longitudinal study to date. By testing multiple determinants of health it will provide a nuanced understanding of what factors most influence health and well being in this vulnerable population. Results from the proposed research will have implications for several areas within anthropology including the health impacts of forced immigration, the relationship between culture and health, the causes of health disparities, and the use of anthropological methods to identify health-related issues relevant to study communities
Funding: NSF
Project Dates: 9/1/2005 - 8/31/2007Project Title: Childcare in Challenging Environments: Identifying Barriers to Optimal Childcare Practice in Rural Tanzania
PSTC Investigators: Hadley, Craig Ph. D.
Description: This project supports ethnographic research into the causes and consequences of dramatic differences in the nutritional status of children from two ethnic groups living in rural Tanzania. Despite the same ecological, political, and physical environment, children of the agropastoralist Sukuma ethnic group have significantly lower rates of childhood stunting and underweight when compared to their neighbors, the horticulturalist Pimbwe, leading one to ask whether these differences in nutritional status reflect different risks of child mortality. Furthermore, if growth differences are related to young child feeding and care practices, why are the Sukuma are able to more closely conform to optimal practices when the Pimbwe cannot? This research conducted a cross-sectional study of the relationship between child growth and young child feeding and maternal caregiving behavior among Pimbwe and Sukuma children less than three years of age, followed by a one year prospective study of whether infant and child feeding and maternal care practices are associated with children’s weight gain and child mortality. This research seeks to tease apart the impact of family structure, economy, cultural beliefs, and maternal health on patterns of child feeding and care practices.
Funding: NSF
Project Dates: 7/15/2004 - 6/30/2006Project Title: Collaborative research: The Cultural Context of Infertility in Southern Nigeria: Meanings, consequences and coping mechanisms.
PSTC Investigators: Hollos, Marida Ph.D. (PI Larsen, Ulla)
Description: This research seeks to advance understanding of the cultural perceptions and social consequences of infertility in sub-Saharan Africa among the Ijo and Yakurr communities of southern Nigeria. It examines structural differences between these populations in order to analyze the link between descent and gender ideology on the one hand, and the perception of infertility and the treatment of infertile women on the other. The study is important for understanding the cultural perceptions and social consequences of infertility in sub-Saharan African societies
Funding: NSF
Project Dates: 7/1/2004 - 6/30/2007Project Title: Capacity Building for Policy-Relevant Population Study in Ethiopia (Renewal)
PSTC Investigators: Lindstrom, David Ph. D.
Description: This program will build a research infrastructure in Ethiopia that advances the reproductive health status of the population through the accurate and timely assessment of reproductive health needs, the promotion and design of effective program interventions, and the monitoring and evaluation of program effectiveness.
Funding: Compton Foundation
Project Dates: 7/1/2003 - 6/30/2005Project Title: Research for Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health in Ethiopia
PSTC Investigators: Lindstrom, David Ph. D.
Description: The project will provide the only comprehensive assessment of program reach based on representative survey data taken in selected target areas. It lays the foundation for developing an understanding of the determinants of early life course transitions for youth that will be important for designing effective program interventions. The project activities will be based at the Department of Population and Family Health (DPFH), Jimma University, and the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC), Brown University. The project builds on investments made in establishing a reproductive health research infrastructure during the first phase of funding from the Packard Foundation, putting to full use computing infrastructure and trained research personnel, and it enhances longer-term research capacity by partnering international and Ethiopian researchers.
Funding: Packard Foundation
Project Dates: 8/1/2004 - 7/31/2007
Project WebsiteProject Title: Analyzing the Effectiveness of a Non-Verbal Response Card: Evidence from Ethiopia
PSTC Investigators: Lindstrom, David Ph.D.
Description: The purpose of this proposed study is to examine the effectiveness of the non-verbal response card method for reducing reporting bias, and to estimate the nature and extent of reporting bias for sensitive questions about sexual behavior that are asked in many standard demographic surveys. Specifically, the proposed study will: (1) assess the capacity of respondents to correctly use the non-verbal response card method; (2) measure the direction and magnitude of reporting bias for different types of questions and for different population subgroups; (3) assess the potential impact of reporting bias on coefficients in multivariate regression models that use responses to questions on sexual attitudes and experiences to model sexual behavior; and (4) use multivariate models to identify population subgroups for whom reporting bias is the most severe.
Funding: NIH/NIAID
Project Dates: 04/01/2008 – 03/31/2010Project Title: Response to Sexual Risk in a High HIV/AIDS Environment
PSTC Investigators: Luke, Nancy Ph. D.
This project supports the analysis of the effect of social institutions, including marriage and economic exchange, on sexual behavior and labor market outcomes among male migrants to Kisumu, Kenya, using survey data collected in 2001.
Funding: World Bank
Project Dates: 12/1/2004 - 6/30/2006Project Title: Barriers to Accessing HIV Testing and Treatment: Towards More Effective Interventions for South African Youth.
PSTC Investigators: Lurie, Mark
Description: To better understand attitudes among rural and urban youth towards HIV testing and treatment in South Africa.
Funding: Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Development Award
Project Dates: 7/1/2005 - 6/30/2006Project Title: The Public Health Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa
PSTC Investigators: Lurie, Mark Ph.D.
Description: This project, conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, collects data on sexual behavior and incidence of sexually transmitted infections among people who are co-infected with TB and HIV and who are on antiretroviral therapy within an existing randomized controlled trial. This and other data will be used to develop mathematical models to estimate the public health impact of HIV treatment in terms of secondary transmission averted.
Funding: NIH / NIMH
Project Dates: 12/1/2003 - 11/30/2008Project Title: HIV/AIDS Related Risk Behaviors among Young People in the Context of Expanded Access to Testing and Treatment in South Africa
PSTC Investigators: Lurie, Mark Ph.D.
Description: To better understand knowledge and attitudes towards HIV treatment and testing among young South Africans
Funding: Brown Univ. Salomon Faculty Award
Project Dates: 12/1/2004 - 12/31/2005Project Title: Collaborative AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
PSTC Investigators: Lurie, Mark Ph.D.(PI Abdool, K.)
Description: The project will undertake globally relevant and locally responsive research that contributes to understanding HIV pathogenesis and epidemiology as well as the nexus between tuberculosis and AIDS care; to build local research infrastructure through cores of expertise; and to provide training through research fellowships tenable both in South Africa and the USA.
Funding: NIH
Project Dates: 1/1/2002 - 12/31/2006Project Title: Children's Evolving Social Networks in the Context of High HIV/AIDS Prevalence
PSTC Investigators: Short, Susan Ph.D.
Description: This project facilitates data acquisition and analysis related to children's social networks in Lesotho, a country with high HIV/AIDS prevalence.
Funding: Salomon Award/Brown University
Project Dates: 2/15/2005 - 2/15/2006Project Title: Love, Marriage, and HIV: A Multi-site Study of Gender and HIV Risk (Transfer)
PSTC Investigators: Smith, Daniel J. Ph.D.
Description: Smith is one of five investigators from five universities in this comparative ethnographic study that explores the relationship between changing conceptions and practices of marriage, gender inequality, and HIV risk in five countries ( Nigeria, Mexico, Vietnam, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea). Smith is responsible for the Nigeria research. This research explores the proposition that married women living in social contexts of persistent gender inequality and economic contexts of under- or unemployment and labor migration are placed uniquely at risk for HIV infection by the worldwide diffusion of an ideology of marriage as a relationship based on romantic love and companionship between equal partners. The project's specific aims are: 1) to compare, across five developing country sites, the relative penetration of ideas and practices associated with compassionate marriage and the specific forms of marital and extramarital relationships; 2) to understand and explain the ways in which these ideas about and practices of intimacy are shaped and constrained by gender-unequal structures and ideologies, local forms of economic organization, and cultural change; and 3) to evaluate the implications of these ideas and practices for HIV prevention within and outside of marriage. The project’s methodology promises to demonstrate value of a comparative ethnographic approach in which qualitative research is used not just to uncover data in one particular context in greater depth, but to enable cross-cultural comparisons based on ethnographic research.
Funding: NIH/ Subcontract with Columbia Univ.
Project Dates: 8/11/2003 - 6/30/2006Project Title: Household-Level Effects on HIV/AIDS Mortality
PSTC Investigators: Townsend, Nicholas (PI Madhavan)
Description: This proposal addresses the effects of HIV/AIDS-related morbidity and mortality on household structure, composition, power dynamics and children's living arrangements. HIV/AIDS has attained epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 10 years with particularly high prevalence rates in southern Africa.
Funding: NIH
Project Dates: 3/7/2005 - 2/28/2007Project Title: Urbanization, Health and Environmental Quality in Coastal Ghana
PSTC Investigators: White, Michael Ph. D.
Description: This project will draw upon existing links among three currently collaborating institutions to examine the social and demographic processes that are closely linked to health and environmental health risks and how these in turn influence local thinking about environmental issues.
Funding: NIH
Project Dates: 7/1/2003 - 6/30/2005
Project Website