Marital instability in a rural population in south-west Uganda: implications for the spread of HIV-1 infection

"The aim of this study was to examine people's beliefs about the causes of marital instability in a rural population cohort in south-west Uganda. Results from a baseline survey of HIV-1 infection in the cohort of over 4,000 adults (over 12 years old) showed a twofold increase in risk of infection in divorced or separated persons when compared with those who are married. A purposive sample of 134 respondents (seventy-two males, sixty-two females) selected to represent different ages, religions and marital status were asked in semi-structured interviews to comment on the reasons for continuing marital instability in their community. The most common reasons suggested for marital instability were sexual dissatisfaction, infertility, alcoholism and mobility....HIV infection was not mentioned as a direct cause of separation, but a small independent study revealed that seven out of ten couples separated on learning of a positive HIV test result of one or both partners. Marital instability is not uncommon in this population; there is evidence that HIV infection is making the situation worse." (SUMMARY IN FRE) excerp

Household Surveys — Using Qualitative Data to Enhance Our Understanding of Household Dynamics over Time

Margo Russell suggested that the “household has become dangerously reified” (1993: 755). She had a point. As she and many commentators have explained, identifying “the household” in many African settings is not straightforward and, indeed, may be misleading because it fails to take account of linkages across a wider kinship or familial group (Guyer and Peters 1987; Martin and Beittel 1987; and, more recently, Müller 2004; McEwan and Samuels 2006; Hosegood et al. 2007). However, as Coast, et al. (2009: 1) have recently stated, “Household surveys are the mainstay of micro-level data for developing countries” and while the use of the household as a unit for data collection has well-documented limitations the important place of “the household” in research as well as for national health surveillance surveys suggests that developing a better understanding of how to define households, and distinguish among different types, is a worthwhile exercise. Demographers such as Sara Randall and Ernestina Coast have undertaken extensive research to understand the use of different definitions of the household in survey and census data, and whether they reflect the household and family structures in Europe and Africa (see, for example, Randall et al. 2011), and this chapter builds on this existing body of work