Dissertation Research: Social Networks, Health Beliefs, and Women's Treatment Seeking for Tuberculosis in Uganda

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This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Case Western Reserve University. The project studies the treatment seeking process for tuberculosis (TB) among relatively understudied Baganda women in Uganda. It explores the variation in the role of a patient's social network, across urban and rural settings, in seeking treatment. The project will interview one hundred women who have been diagnosed with TB from two sites, an urban TB clinic and a rural health clinic. Subjects will be interviewed three times over six months using open-ended and semi-structured survey instruments to determine symptom labeling, behavioral alterations, consultation with friends and relatives and how they sought treatment from professional care givers, and their reaction to situations where the advice of traditional care-givers contradicts that of bio-medical providers. The study will contribute to our knowledge of the interaction between social network structure and functioning in medical treatment-seeking for this chronic illness. The advance in our understanding of general principles of how and why people seek and adhere to medical advice will be important in developing programs of health improvement. The project also increases our expertise about this important region of the world.