Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Context and Women's Health in India

博士论文研究：印度的社区背景和妇女健康。摘要本研究分析了印度社区背景、性别和健康的交叉点。印度已崛起为技术创新和生产中心，并准备成为全球生产的商品和服务的大型消费市场。然而，它在全球经济中的作用部分取决于其所有公民的发展和健康。印度大部分地区的福祉？中国的人口并没有与其他部门同步增长。印度在卫生领域的性别平等方面远远落后于大多数国家。妇女的健康也因其生活的地理环境而存在不平等。人们对地理环境的属性如何与妇女健康的变化联系在一起的了解相对较少。性别不仅仅是一种个人特征，而是一种具有不同层面的不平等安排。该项目研究社区中性别化的文化和经济做法如何与妇女联系在一起？的健康，保持其他关键的个人，家庭和社区层面的特征不变。它使用了来自印度所有邦和中央直辖区（不包括拉克沙群岛和安达曼和尼科巴群岛）社区的全国妇女数据。它将使用多层次和空间建模技术来检查健康结果，以隔离社区背景因素在妇女健康中的作用。对于印度这样的国家，更好地了解社区环境影响妇女的过程？由于当地社区普遍存在性别规范，而且性别规范各不相同，因此，妇女的健康尤为重要。这项研究还将对政府和非政府促进健康公平的举措产生政策影响。从这项研究中得出的见解将有可能使领导人更好地面对社区中影响女孩和妇女生活的做法和进程。更一般地说，这项研究有望使文化和经济实践在研究人员对健康和福祉的理解方面得到更深刻的理解。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Context and Women's Health in India. ABSTRACTThis research analyzes the intersection of community context, gender, and health in India. India has risen as a center of technological innovation and production and is poised as a large consumer market for globally produced goods and services. Yet, its role in the global economy partly depends on the development and health of all its citizens. The well-being of large sectors of India?s population has not risen in tandem with other sectors. India lags far behind most nations in terms of gender equality in health. There are also inequities in the health of women based on the geographic contexts in which they live. Relatively little is understood about how attributes of geographic contexts are linked to variations in women's health. Gender is not merely a personal characteristic but rather an arrangement of inequality with various dimensions. This project examines how gendered cultural and economic practices in communities are associated with women?s health, holding constant other key individual, family, and community-level characteristics. It uses national data on women drawn from community contexts located within all Indian states and union territories, excluding Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It will examine health outcomes using multilevel and spatial modeling techniques in order to isolate the role of community context factors in women's health.This research has varied broader impacts. For countries such as India, gaining a better understanding of processes through which community contexts influence women?s health is especially important because of the prevalence of and variation in gender norms across local communities. This research will also have policy implications for government and non-government initiatives to promote health equity. Insights stemming from this research will have the potential better equip leaders to face the practices and processes in communities that impact the lives of girls and women. More generally, this study promises to bring cultural and economic practices into sharper relief with regard to researchers' understanding of health and well-being.