Carol Vlassoff
Biographic Data
| ID | 130400 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carol Vlassoff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carol |
| FAMILY NAME | Vlassoff |
| SIGNATURE | VLASSOFF C |
| AFFILIATIONS | World Health Organization |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1362-4034 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 165 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Associations between dimensions of empowerment and nutritional status among married adolescent girls in East Africa: A structural equation modelling study
Our findings suggest that investment in girls' access to information through education and mass/social media and their economic empowerment may be important contributors to their overall empowerment and nutritional status. However, caution is needed as greater autonomy may contribute to increased consumption of unhealthy foods that can contribute to overweight and obesity. Strategies to empower married adolescent girls should be tailored to their…
A human rights-based framework to assess gender equality in health systems: The example of Zika virus in the Americas
BACKGROUND: The right to health was enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1946 and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The latter Declaration, which also guaranteed women's rights, was signed by almost all countries in the world. Subsequent international conventions reinforced these rights, requiring that women be able to realize their fundamental freedoms and dignity. Although the value of inco…
Can conditional cash transfers promote delayed childbearing? Evidence from the ‘Second Honeymoon Package’ in rural Maharashtra, India
In 2007 the District Health Services in Satara District, Maharashtra, India, undertook an innovative programme, ‘the Second Honeymoon Package’ (SHP), which aimed to reduce the rate of population growth by offering conditional cash transfers (CCTs) to newly married couples who agreed to postpone their first birth by two or three years. The approach differed from India's traditional family planning programme, based mainly on female sterilisation, b…
A Question Module for Assessing Community Stigma Towards Hiv in Rural India
This paper describes a simple question module to assess community stigma in rural India. Fear of stigma is known to prevent people from seeking HIV testing and to contribute to further disease transmission, yet relatively little attention has been paid to community stigma and ways of measuring it. The module, based on a vignette of a fictional HIV-positive woman, was administered to 494 married women and 186 unmarried male and female adolescents …
Gender Equality and Inequality in Rural India: Blessed with a Son
As India strives to improve overall social and economic conditions and gender relations through policies such as the abolishment of dowry, increasing the legal age at marriage, and promoting education
Economic Development, Women's Social and Economic Empowerment and Reproductive Health in Rural India
This paper analyses the relationships between economic development, women's social and economic empowerment and reproductive health in rural India using both state- and micro-level data. While previous studies have examined the separate effects of economic development on women's empowerment and reproductive health, and the interrelationships between empowerment and reproductive health indicators, to our knowledge ours is the first to examine the …
Desire for Sons and Subsequent Fertility in Rural India. A 20-Year Longitudinal Study
This paper compares the desired fertility of rural Indian women in 1987 with their actual fertility in 2007. Seventy-one respondents who stated definite fertility intentions and had fewer children than desired in 1987 were re-interviewed 20 years later, as part of a larger study. The results indicated that these women had fewer children than intended and stopped childbearing once they reached, or approximated, their desired number of sons. The ma…
HIV-related stigma among South Asians in Toronto
Major gaps in knowledge about HIV among Canadian South Asians, and a considerable amount of stigma against people living with HIV, were found. The implications of stigma were highly problematic for people living with HIV, impeding access to services and social support. The paper concludes with recommendations to address stigma, based on suggestions from the study's participants
Placing gender at the centre of health programming: Challenges and Limitations
Health Workers for Change as a health systems management and development tool
In this paper we draw overall conclusions concerning the Health Workers for Change (HWFC) methodology as a management and health systems development tool. We examine how HWFC has contributed to an elucidation of the four main themes with which this special Issue is concerned, namely: the value of participatory training; the need for gender sensitivity in health services; the impact of the HWFC intervention on gender sensitivity and quality of car…
An evaluation of Health Workers for Change in seven settings: A useful management and health system development tool
This paper presents the findings of a multi-centre study assessing the impact of Health Workers for Change (HWFC) workshops in seven different primary care sites, based on the common core protocol described in this paper. The paper discusses a common methodology used by the studies, consisting of a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods. Such methodologies are inherently complex as they require comparisons across systems, sites and…
Introducing Health Workers for Change: From transformation theory to health systems in developing countries
This introductory paper provides the theoretical basis behind the Health Workers for Change methodology, and the role of interactive, participatory learning approaches in promoting social change. The methodology has its origins in Latin America and Kenya, where participatory research methods have been used widely to raise social consciousness and promote change. The paper discusses the resistance of health institutions to participatory ways of le…
Gender and the stigma of onchocercal skin disease in Africa
Treatment-seeking behaviour for malaria: A typology based on endemicity and gender
Gender relations and education of girls in two Indian communities: Implications for decisions about childbearing
Until recently, it was widely accepted that female education was a major determinant of fertility change in developing countries. 1–2 Today, there is growing evidence that this association is problematic. This paper is concerned with the mechanisms by which education does or does not impact gender relations and decisions about childbearing within the rural Indian household. Based on a comparison of two studies in India (one mainly quantitative an…
The family: A neglected determinant of health in South Asia
Filariasis in northern Ghana: Some cultural beliefs and practices and their implications for disease control
Migration and Remittances: Inter-Urban and Rural-Urban Linkage
Gender-related differences in the impact of tropical diseases on women: What do we know?
This paper explores the importance of gender differences in the impact of tropical diseases on women. Malaria and schistosomiasis are used as examples but most of the observations also apply to other diseases endemic to developing countries. The distinction between sex and gender is discussed and evidence of sex and gender differences in the determinants and consequences of malaria and schistosomiasis, particularly their economic, social and pers…
Hope or despair? Rising education and the status of adolescent females in rural India
From rags to riches: The impact of rural development on women's status in an Indian village
Reversing the Flow: Agricultural Development and Changing Migration Patterns in Rural Maharashtra
In this paper we investigate the impact of rapid change from subsistence to irrigated farming [in Maharashtra, India,] and human dynamic responses to these changes from a longitudinal perspective (1975 to 1987). The study focuses on a single village, providing an in-depth and extensive analysis of both in and out-migration, characteristics of migrants, motivations for migration, experience at destination, and links with home areas, both social an…
Gender inequalities in health in the third world: Uncharted ground
Education and Family Welfare Planning
Gender and tropical diseases: A new research focus
The Value of Sons in an Indian Village: How Widows See It
In a micro-study in rural India the old-age security motive for high fertility among widows, who are generally considered to be a particularly vulnerable group was investigated. Thirty of the 123 village widows, representing different economic situations and living arrangements, were selected for in-depth interviews. Comparisons were made between widows who were primary breadwinners and had dependent sons living with them, widows who lived with e…
Gender inequalities in health in the third world: Uncharted ground
Placing gender at the centre of health programming: Challenges and Limitations
Gender and tropical diseases: A new research focus
Progress and Stagnation: Changes in Fertility and Women's Position in an Indian Village
This paper compares women's status, fertility, and contraceptive use in 1975 and 1987 among married women aged 15–26 in a Maharashtra village. Changes in women's position over the 12 years were both positive and negative. Although education and age at marriage had increased, the 1987 cohort was more conservative in many respects. Fertility appeared to be declining, and women were increasingly completing their families quickly and then undergoing …
Old age security and the utility of children in Rural India
This study investigates old age security as a possible motivation for high fertility, using information gathered by means of questionnaires and participant observation in an Indian village during 1975-76. Results indicated that such motivation may be quite weak, and hence that population policies aimed at lowering the economic value of children through public social security programmes would achieve little. A variety of evidence pointed to the im…
Fertility Intentions and Subsequent Behavior: A Longitudinal Study in Rural India
This report compares fertility and family planning intentions of rural Indian women in 1975 with actual outcomes in 1987. Ninety-four of 103 respondents who had fewer children than they wanted in 1975 and had stated definite intentions with respect to future fertility and contraceptive use were reinterviewed in 1987. Overall, women had fewer children than desired and stopped childbearing when they reached or closely approximated their ideal numbe…
Treatment-seeking behaviour for malaria: A typology based on endemicity and gender
Gender and the stigma of onchocercal skin disease in Africa
From rags to riches: The impact of rural development on women's status in an Indian village
Gender relations and education of girls in two Indian communities: Implications for decisions about childbearing
Until recently, it was widely accepted that female education was a major determinant of fertility change in developing countries. 1–2 Today, there is growing evidence that this association is problematic. This paper is concerned with the mechanisms by which education does or does not impact gender relations and decisions about childbearing within the rural Indian household. Based on a comparison of two studies in India (one mainly quantitative an…
Filariasis in northern Ghana: Some cultural beliefs and practices and their implications for disease control
HIV-related stigma among South Asians in Toronto
Major gaps in knowledge about HIV among Canadian South Asians, and a considerable amount of stigma against people living with HIV, were found. The implications of stigma were highly problematic for people living with HIV, impeding access to services and social support. The paper concludes with recommendations to address stigma, based on suggestions from the study's participants
Health Workers for Change as a health systems management and development tool
In this paper we draw overall conclusions concerning the Health Workers for Change (HWFC) methodology as a management and health systems development tool. We examine how HWFC has contributed to an elucidation of the four main themes with which this special Issue is concerned, namely: the value of participatory training; the need for gender sensitivity in health services; the impact of the HWFC intervention on gender sensitivity and quality of car…
Rejoinder to Cain: Widows, Sons, and Old-Age Security in Rural Maharashtra: A Comment on Vlassoff
Carol Vlassoff comments on Mead T. Cains critique of her critique of Cains recent article on the importance of sons to their parents for old-age security in South India. The author opens by explaining to the reader that her initial critique of Cain was prompted by what she considered to be their common substantive and geographical interests. Vlassoff did not single him out as an adversary. 1st summarizing her argument Vlassoff returns to her case…
An evaluation of Health Workers for Change in seven settings: A useful management and health system development tool
This paper presents the findings of a multi-centre study assessing the impact of Health Workers for Change (HWFC) workshops in seven different primary care sites, based on the common core protocol described in this paper. The paper discusses a common methodology used by the studies, consisting of a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods. Such methodologies are inherently complex as they require comparisons across systems, sites and…
Introducing Health Workers for Change: From transformation theory to health systems in developing countries
This introductory paper provides the theoretical basis behind the Health Workers for Change methodology, and the role of interactive, participatory learning approaches in promoting social change. The methodology has its origins in Latin America and Kenya, where participatory research methods have been used widely to raise social consciousness and promote change. The paper discusses the resistance of health institutions to participatory ways of le…
The relevance of rapid assessment to health research and interventions
This paper introduces the special issue on rapid assessment methods for tropical disease research. It highlights disease control problems that the combined skills of social and biomedical scientists must address, as well as problems hampering multidisciplinary research. Traditional social science and epidemiological methods are often too time-consuming to address the immediate and urgent needs of disease control programmes. Rapid assessment metho…
Economic Development, Women's Social and Economic Empowerment and Reproductive Health in Rural India
This paper analyses the relationships between economic development, women's social and economic empowerment and reproductive health in rural India using both state- and micro-level data. While previous studies have examined the separate effects of economic development on women's empowerment and reproductive health, and the interrelationships between empowerment and reproductive health indicators, to our knowledge ours is the first to examine the …
Hope or despair? Rising education and the status of adolescent females in rural India
Reversing the Flow: Agricultural Development and Changing Migration Patterns in Rural Maharashtra
In this paper we investigate the impact of rapid change from subsistence to irrigated farming [in Maharashtra, India,] and human dynamic responses to these changes from a longitudinal perspective (1975 to 1987). The study focuses on a single village, providing an in-depth and extensive analysis of both in and out-migration, characteristics of migrants, motivations for migration, experience at destination, and links with home areas, both social an…
Unmarried Adolescent Females in Rural India: A Study of the Social Impact of Education
Data from interviews with 70 unmarried adolescent females in a traditional Indian community are used to examine the impact of education upon their activities, ideals and general awareness. A novelfeature of the analysis is the inclusion of both schoolgoing and out-of-school youth. While education was linked to more modern attitudes and greater knowledge, considerable traditionalism prevailed even among the most educated adolescents. Comparisons w…
Misreporting in rural fertility data: An analysis of husband–wife disagreement
Two independent, concurrent demographic surveys in rural India, one male, the other female, were used to examine misreporting of ever-born children among 223 couples common to both samples. Husband-wife disagreements were checked in detail and characteristics of the errors and of the misreporters themselves were analysed. ‘Forgetting’ of dead children was the main cause of mistaken reporting. Another type of error was found to be sex-related: men…
Fertility control without modernization: Evidence from a rural Indian community
Data from a survey of 349 fertile married women are used to examine the significance of cultural context for contraceptive behaviour in a traditional Indian village. While sterilization was widely sanctioned, other methods were little known, favoured or used. Relationship with modernization indicators also varied for different contraceptive techniques. Traditional respondents were as favourable towards sterilization as modern women, but modern wo…
Old age security and the utility of children in Rural India
This study investigates old age security as a possible motivation for high fertility, using information gathered by means of questionnaires and participant observation in an Indian village during 1975-76. Results indicated that such motivation may be quite weak, and hence that population policies aimed at lowering the economic value of children through public social security programmes would achieve little. A variety of evidence pointed to the im…
Unmarried Adolescent Females in Rural India: A Study of the Social Impact of Education
Data from interviews with 70 unmarried adolescent females in a traditional Indian community are used to examine the impact of education upon their activities, ideals and general awareness. A novelfeature of the analysis is the inclusion of both schoolgoing and out-of-school youth. While education was linked to more modern attitudes and greater knowledge, considerable traditionalism prevailed even among the most educated adolescents. Comparisons w…
Family type and fertility in rural India: A critical analysis
This paper, based on data from two independent but concurrent studies, seeks to show that the explanation for the inconclusive results concerning fertility and family type in India lies in the failure of previous researchers to take account of an important intervening variable, the family life cycle. Fertility levels are examined in nuclear and joint families in a village in Western India and changes in relationships at different stages in the fa…
Fertility Intentions and Subsequent Behavior: A Longitudinal Study in Rural India
This report compares fertility and family planning intentions of rural Indian women in 1975 with actual outcomes in 1987. Ninety-four of 103 respondents who had fewer children than they wanted in 1975 and had stated definite intentions with respect to future fertility and contraceptive use were reinterviewed in 1987. Overall, women had fewer children than desired and stopped childbearing when they reached or closely approximated their ideal numbe…
The Value of Sons in an Indian Village: How Widows See It
In a micro-study in rural India the old-age security motive for high fertility among widows, who are generally considered to be a particularly vulnerable group was investigated. Thirty of the 123 village widows, representing different economic situations and living arrangements, were selected for in-depth interviews. Comparisons were made between widows who were primary breadwinners and had dependent sons living with them, widows who lived with e…
Rejoinder to Cain: Widows, Sons, and Old-Age Security in Rural Maharashtra: A Comment on Vlassoff
Carol Vlassoff comments on Mead T. Cains critique of her critique of Cains recent article on the importance of sons to their parents for old-age security in South India. The author opens by explaining to the reader that her initial critique of Cain was prompted by what she considered to be their common substantive and geographical interests. Vlassoff did not single him out as an adversary. 1st summarizing her argument Vlassoff returns to her case…
Rural Development and Population: Institutions and Policy. Population and Development Review, A Supplement to Volume 15, 1989
The relevance of rapid assessment to health research and interventions
This paper introduces the special issue on rapid assessment methods for tropical disease research. It highlights disease control problems that the combined skills of social and biomedical scientists must address, as well as problems hampering multidisciplinary research. Traditional social science and epidemiological methods are often too time-consuming to address the immediate and urgent needs of disease control programmes. Rapid assessment metho…
Progress and Stagnation: Changes in Fertility and Women's Position in an Indian Village
This paper compares women's status, fertility, and contraceptive use in 1975 and 1987 among married women aged 15–26 in a Maharashtra village. Changes in women's position over the 12 years were both positive and negative. Although education and age at marriage had increased, the 1987 cohort was more conservative in many respects. Fertility appeared to be declining, and women were increasingly completing their families quickly and then undergoing …
Gender and tropical diseases: A new research focus
Gender-related differences in the impact of tropical diseases on women: What do we know?
This paper explores the importance of gender differences in the impact of tropical diseases on women. Malaria and schistosomiasis are used as examples but most of the observations also apply to other diseases endemic to developing countries. The distinction between sex and gender is discussed and evidence of sex and gender differences in the determinants and consequences of malaria and schistosomiasis, particularly their economic, social and pers…
Hope or despair? Rising education and the status of adolescent females in rural India
From rags to riches: The impact of rural development on women's status in an Indian village
Reversing the Flow: Agricultural Development and Changing Migration Patterns in Rural Maharashtra
In this paper we investigate the impact of rapid change from subsistence to irrigated farming [in Maharashtra, India,] and human dynamic responses to these changes from a longitudinal perspective (1975 to 1987). The study focuses on a single village, providing an in-depth and extensive analysis of both in and out-migration, characteristics of migrants, motivations for migration, experience at destination, and links with home areas, both social an…
Gender inequalities in health in the third world: Uncharted ground
Education and Family Welfare Planning
The family: A neglected determinant of health in South Asia
Filariasis in northern Ghana: Some cultural beliefs and practices and their implications for disease control
Migration and Remittances: Inter-Urban and Rural-Urban Linkage
Gender relations and education of girls in two Indian communities: Implications for decisions about childbearing
Until recently, it was widely accepted that female education was a major determinant of fertility change in developing countries. 1–2 Today, there is growing evidence that this association is problematic. This paper is concerned with the mechanisms by which education does or does not impact gender relations and decisions about childbearing within the rural Indian household. Based on a comparison of two studies in India (one mainly quantitative an…
Treatment-seeking behaviour for malaria: A typology based on endemicity and gender
Gender and the stigma of onchocercal skin disease in Africa
Health Workers for Change as a health systems management and development tool
In this paper we draw overall conclusions concerning the Health Workers for Change (HWFC) methodology as a management and health systems development tool. We examine how HWFC has contributed to an elucidation of the four main themes with which this special Issue is concerned, namely: the value of participatory training; the need for gender sensitivity in health services; the impact of the HWFC intervention on gender sensitivity and quality of car…
Sociology (29 works) · Economics (21 works) · Medicine (21 works) · Economic growth (19 works) · Geography (19 works) · Political science (19 works) · Demography (18 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (17 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (16 works) · Population (16 works)