The contribution of social science research to malaria prevention and control.

Abstract

Social science has had an integral role in defining strategies against malaria as affirmed by the growing number of articles in scientific journals and the forging of international partnerships. In spite of this numerous factors impede the integration of social science knowledge and practice into malaria research and programs. First many malaria control personnel physicians and epidemiologists overlook the different complementary disciplines of social science and may only have a superficial knowledge of this type of research. A second factor contributing to the less than optimal contribution of social science research to malaria control is that in many cases those who carry out behavioral research for control programs may have had some training in rapid assessment techniques but limited or no training in social science theory and methodology. The final factor is the expectation that employing a social scientist for a rapid assessment will be sufficient to ensure greater acceptance of whatever intervention is being provided. It is suggested that social scientists need to be more proactive in challenging current orthodoxies and in identifying new intervention methods such as longer periods of ethnographic fieldwork and sharing of experiences working on different diseases of poverty.