Doctoral Dissertation: Respiratory Health and the Experience of Modernity in Two South Indian Communities

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Abstract 0001494This project will investigate the relationship between recent socioeconomic and environmental changes in South India and changing respiratory health/disease patterns; specifically, the prevalence of asthma has increased dramatically in this region. The research will focus on Indians' explanatory models of this disease and its presumed causes. It will examine how the experience of, and explanations for, asthma influence health-care seeking and management in a setting of medical pluralism, and how these vary by class, caste, and gender. It will specifically analyze how local models/perceptions may be contributing to poor management of the disease. Two south Indian communities that have experienced different kinds of socioeconomic and environmental change-- an industrial town and a rural village -- will be compared. Methods include structured interviews with samples of households, the elicitation of factors causing asthma, an analysis of medications utilized, and a health services study of local pharmacies and drug vendors. This research will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between economic/environmental change and deteriorating respiratory health in many parts of the industrialized, developing world.