Prospective Community Studies in Developing Countries

This book presents an overview of eleven of the most important prospective studies in developing countries in population and health research. Leading practitioners in the field report on the methodologies they have developed and used, and summarize their findings. Since many of these methodologies have never been documented, and the results gathered are scattered in many different publications, Prospective Community Studies in Developing Countries provides a great deal of valuable information which until now has been difficult to locate. It will thus be an indispensable guide to researchers in the field of prospective studies and will also be helpful as a teaching aid. Prospective research has been fundamental to many recent innovations regarding the way that demographic behaviour is observed, monitored, and analysed; this volume acts as a unique compendium of reflective accounts of such research. It also provides a comprehensive account of the substantive contribution of prospective studies, which includes several innovative and seminal findings on community health. Prospective Communities in Developing Countries is an important contribution to the current debate on the most efficient kinds of surveys, and deals with ongoing as well as completed studies. It will be of great interest to demographers, public health researchers, family planners, and survey specialists, especially to those who have only had access to standard retrospective surveys.