This project aims to clarify the development and current applications of Latin American social medicine. In Latin America, social medicine has emphasized social conditions in the etiology and treatment of disease. From a base in Chile, the project will build on the applicant's prior research in this field through further training and experience in social medicine within the Latin American setting. With guidance from Latin American colleagues, the project's methodology will include a review of publications and unpublished literature in Spanish, study of archives, and focused interviews with leaders, health care practitioners, and lay participants in social medicine programs. Themes to be considered in the project include several emphases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): social, environmental, and nutrition causes of infant and perinatal mortality (NICHHD); economic development, demographic change, and aging (NIA); socioeconomic barriers to cancer prevention (NCI); and determinants of mental illness in racial or ethnic background, social class, gender, and social violence (NIMH). In particular, the project will elucidate social scientific perspectives in this field. Attention will be devoted to sources of controversy and debate. The project will lead to publications that for the first time will bring these little known perspectives in a systematic way to English-language readers.
