Recorded presentation

Rebecca Warne Peters, MPH, Rollins School of Public Health, Department of International Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30322, (404) 321-6647, rapeter@sph.emory.edu and Daniel W. Sellen, Departments of Anthropology and International Health, Emory University, 1557 Pierce Drive, NE, Atlanta, GA 30306.

International Health research, especially in the area of nutrition, often focuses on either qualitative or quantitative methodologies, each to the exclusion of the other, in answering usually complex research questions. This approach is unsatisfactory, particularly in cases where research results are intended to be applied programmatically, as data of both varieties are often required. An example of a small nutritional research project carried out in northern Mozambique (Nampula Province) is offered as a study design example which uses both qualitative and semi-quantitative methods in a cost-effective manner to address complementary research questions. Ethnographic-style observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups, and picture pile sorts were used to qualitatively address research questions pertaining to food habits and food taboos among pregnant and nursing women and infants of weaning age. Twenty-four hour food recalls and household food inventories were used as semi-quantitative methods to document real food availability and dietary intake among study participants. Results reveal that while ecological variables, poverty and other macro-level factors structure food possibilities for the participating communities, personal preferences and beliefs about food characteristics, especially cultural ideas about the ‘lightness’ or ‘heaviness’ of foods, shape dietary decision making within these possibilities. Further public health programming in the region will be able to tailor nutrition messages and recommendations to address both local dietary intake and the decision making processes surrounding that intake, improving nutritional outcomes within macrostructural constraints.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to compare the relative merits of qualitative and quantitative methods in assessing dietary habits in resource-poor settings and design research projects to use different methods complementarily.

Keywords: Methodology, Food and Nutrition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation