Cultural issues in maternal and child health and nutrition

Abstract

Social science research on cultural issues in maternal and child health has stressed some aspects and neglected others. From the perspective of both policy applications and theory development, new research efforts could profitably be directed to the following areas: cultural adjustments to changed energy and nutrient requirements in pregnancy and lactation; maternal illness; the mother/infant dyadic interaction; emic views of growth and development; determinants of infant and young child feeding; management of childhood illnesses; popular medicine and childhood illnesses; intra-household food distribution; household composition and maternal and child health; and macrolevel/microlevel linkages and health.