Prospective Community Studies in Developing Countries

This is an overview of the leading prospective studies in developing countries on population and health research. Prospective community studies are concerned with understanding the incidence of birth, disease, and death. Here, the leading practitioners in this field present the methodologies they have developed and summarize the major findings of their efforts. Since many of these methodologies have never been documented and their results are scattered in different publications, this volume collects much valuable data that is otherwise difficult to locate. It will be an indispensable guide to researchers in the field of prospective studies and will also prove useful as an academic or professional resource for demographers, public health researchers, family planners, and survey specialists.

This book presents an overview of the leading prospective studies in developing countries in population and health research. Prospective community studies are concerned with the understanding of the incidence of birth, disease and death. The leading practitioners in this field present the methodologies they have developed and summarize the major findings of their studies. Since many of these methodologies have never been documented and the results are scattered in different publications, the volume provides a great deal of valuable information which is difficult to locate. Thus it will be an indispensable guide to researchers in the field of prospective studies and will also be helpful as a teaching aid. It is a unique compendium of reflective accounts of prospective research, which has been so fundamental to many major innovations regarding the way demographic behaviour is observed, monitored and analysed. It also provides a comprehensive account of the substantive contribution of prospective studies, which include some innovative and seminal findings on community health. The debate on the most efficient kinds of surveys is still ongoing, and some of the surveys are still in progress too. The book will be of great interest for demographers, public health researchers, family planners and survey specialists.

Introduction; 1. Origins of Longitudinal Community Based Studies Carl E. Taylor; 2. The History, Methodology, and Main Findings of the Matlab Project in Bangladesh W. Henry Mosley; 3. Determinants of Rates of Early Childhood Sickness and Death and of Long Birth Intervals: Evidence from the Khanna Study, Rural Punjab, India, 1954-1964 John B. Wyon; 4. Methodology and Main Findings on Child Survival of the Khanna Restudy, 1984-1988 Monica Das Gupta; 5. Lessons from Narangwal About Primary Health Care, Family Planning, and Nutrition Carl E. Taylor and Cecile De Sweemer; 6. A Comparison of Supplementary Feeding and Medical Care of Pre-School Children in Guatemela Nevin S. Scrimshaw and Miguel Guzman; 7. Longitudinal Community Health Research for Equity and Accountability in Primary Health Care in Haiti Gretchen Berggren, Warren Berggren, Henri M?nager, and Eddy Genece; 8. Design, Results, and Comments on the Machakos Project in Kenya Jeroen K. van Ginneken, A.S. Muller, and Omondi-Odhiambo; 9. The Phlolela Health Centre Understanding Helath and Disease in South Africa Trough Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) Stephen M. Tollman, Sidney L. Kark, and Emily Kark; 10. Three decades of Research on Population and Health: The ORSTROM Experience in Rural Senegal, 1962-1991 Michel Garenne and Pierre Cantrelle; 11. Bandafassi: a 23-Year Prospective Community Study in Rural Senegal (1970-1993) Gilles Pison, Annabel Desgr?es du Lou, and Andr? Langanay; 12. Bandim, an Unplanned Longitudinal Study Peter Aaby; Appendix