Longitundinal Study of Health and Lifestyle Change in Lowland Bolivia

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Dr. William R. Leonard (Northwestern University) and Dr. Ricardo A. Godoy (Brandeis University) are going to establish one of the first panel studies in cultural anthropology. Panel or longitudinal studies involve repeated observations of individuals or households over time. Despite the growing popularity of panel studies in other branches of science, anthropology has yet to embrace this approach for studying patterns of bio-behavioral change over time. The proposed work aims to address this gap by continuing the research team's long-term field project on changes in lifestyle and health among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society in Bolivia. Since 2002 the Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS) has collected socioeconomic and health data every year from a sample of 252 households (1577 individuals) from 13 villages situated in the Beni Department of Bolivia. This research is providing important insights into how lifestyle modernization and greater exposure to the market economy among the Tsimane' are influencing such factors as: (1) the loss/preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, (2) resource use and food consumption, (3) child health and nutritional status, and (4) adult chronic and infectious disease risks. The research team will continue to do annual measurements of household socioeconomic status and resource use, childhood growth and health status, and adult heath in all 252 of our panel households. Additionally, they will continue to use their research site for summer methods training for Ph.D. students in anthropology. Furthermore, the current funding will allow the research team to consolidate and harmonize all of their panel data set and make it publicly available on the web to other researchers. By tracking the same people over time as they gain greater exposure to the market economy, TAPS will allow scholars to explore topics that they will be unable to study directly in the future with the waning of traditional societies. Making the panel data sets publicly available with clear documentation should contribute to a wider debate about the effects of globalization and market exposure on well-being.