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

该项目将调查印度南部最近的社会经济和环境变化与不断变化的呼吸道健康/疾病模式之间的关系；具体来说，该地区哮喘患病率急剧上升。这项研究将集中在印度人对这种疾病的解释模型及其假定原因上。它将研究在医疗多元化的背景下，哮喘的经历和解释如何影响医疗保健的寻求和管理，以及这些如何因阶级、种姓和性别而异。它将具体分析地方模式/观念如何可能导致疾病管理不善。两个南印度社区经历了不同类型的社会经济和环境变化——一个工业城镇和一个农村——将进行比较。方法包括对家庭样本进行结构化访谈，引出引起哮喘的因素，分析使用的药物，以及对当地药房和药品供应商进行卫生服务研究。这项研究将有助于我们理解经济/环境变化与许多工业化发展中国家呼吸系统健康恶化之间的关系。

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.