The purpose of this project is to identify and explain the risk factors for sterility among sub-Saharan African women. This will greatly facilitate our understanding of the cultural and behavioral determinants of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in this world region. Identifying the distinctive matrix of cultural, social, and individual characteristics that provide an explanation for sterility and STDs will be a major goal of this project. A series of theoretically informed empirical models will be developed to answer three basic questions: First, to what extent can variations in sterility rates among sub-Saharan African women be accounted for by demographic characteristics that put them at risk? Second, what are the social patterns and cultural traditions that provide a context, or markers, for these sexual behaviors and practices? Finally, to what extent can a cultured geography of high and low sterility populations be mapped that can provide a guide useful to both research and health policy? The approach outlined in this proposal will provide, for the first time, a comprehensive empirical analysis of all those characteristics linked directly or indirectly to sterility and disease transmission that until now have only been a matter of speculation. The major methodological innovation is the merging of data and interpretive perspectives of two different social traditions. Analyses will be based on data from large scale probability samples of African nations.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD029418-01A1
Application #
3330885
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Study Section (SSP)
Project Start
1993-05-01
Project End
1996-04-30
Budget Start
1993-05-01
Budget End
1994-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Davis
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
094878337
City
Davis
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
95618