TY - JOUR
T1 - Reasoning about childhood nutritional deficiencies by mothers in rural India
T2 - A cognitive analysis
AU - Sivaramakrishnan, Malathi
AU - Patel, Vimla L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements-This study was supportedi n part by the Social Sciencea nd HumanitiesC ouncil of Canadat o Vimla Pate1 and a fellowship from the Shastri Indo-CanadianI nstitute to Malathi SivaramakrishnanW. e ac-knowledgeth es upporto f thea uthoritiesa ssociatedw ith the nutrition centresi n India wheret he study was conducted. Very speciatl hanksa red ueto them othersin the studyw ho so generouslyv olunteeredth eir time. It was a pleasuret o work with them.F inally, we thank Dr RakeshC haturvedi for his valuablec ommentso n traditionalm edicine,a nd SusanS t-Pierref or typing the manuscript.
PY - 1993/10
Y1 - 1993/10
N2 - This study examines reasoning about the cause and treatment of three types of childhood protein energy malnutrition (PEM) by 108 mothers in rural South India. The mothers were interviewed and their explanations of the childhood nutritional problems were verbally recorded, transcribed and then analyzed using cognitive methods of analysis. The results indicated that knowledge and practices associated with traditional systems of Indian medicine prevalent in rural areas greatly influenced the mothers' reasoning. Their explanations were shown to have story-like structures, with sequences of events linked by strong causal explanations. Mothers with higher levels of formal education showed greater verbal use of concepts related to biomedical theories of nutritional disorders. However, their interpretations of these concepts were still based on the traditional theory. The study revealed both positive and negative aspects of traditional knowledge and beliefs for adequate child nutrition and health. The development of improved instructional strategies for nutrition and health education in relation to knowledge organization is discussed in the context of rural India.
AB - This study examines reasoning about the cause and treatment of three types of childhood protein energy malnutrition (PEM) by 108 mothers in rural South India. The mothers were interviewed and their explanations of the childhood nutritional problems were verbally recorded, transcribed and then analyzed using cognitive methods of analysis. The results indicated that knowledge and practices associated with traditional systems of Indian medicine prevalent in rural areas greatly influenced the mothers' reasoning. Their explanations were shown to have story-like structures, with sequences of events linked by strong causal explanations. Mothers with higher levels of formal education showed greater verbal use of concepts related to biomedical theories of nutritional disorders. However, their interpretations of these concepts were still based on the traditional theory. The study revealed both positive and negative aspects of traditional knowledge and beliefs for adequate child nutrition and health. The development of improved instructional strategies for nutrition and health education in relation to knowledge organization is discussed in the context of rural India.
KW - childhood protein energy malnutrition
KW - formal education medical pluralism
KW - rural India
KW - traditional knowledge
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U2 - 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90148-W
DO - 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90148-W
M3 - Article
C2 - 8211312
AN - SCOPUS:0027337394
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 37
SP - 937
EP - 952
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 7
ER -