Research Areas Projects
Popular Press Press Multimedia

Public Health

Our objective is to leverage insight from social and biological sciences to develop innovative solutions to pressing concerns in health and medicine.

public-health.jpg

We study cultural ecologies of health to better understand the complex sociocultural systems that shape health-related beliefs and behaviors. Topics of study include beliefs and behaviors about noncommunicable disease, communicable disease (including HIV), and global pandemics (including COVID-19). We are also interested in digital healthcare delivery, primary health care systems, and the global health workforce (including frontline workers).

We also study perceptions of climate change, “infodemics”, and vaccine hesitancy. We currently have active social scientific research programs on maternal and child health, reproductive health, women’s health, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change. For example, we have studied community health workers and perinatal health in Bihar, India; traditional medicine in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; and HIV/AIDS in Gauteng, South Africa.

Public Health Projects

Featured
Global Variation in COVID-19 Beliefs and Behaviors
Global Variation in COVID-19 Beliefs and Behaviors

Documenting how health “influencers” disseminate and shape COVID-19 vaccine beliefs and behaviors

Young Wives: An Exploratory Study of Married Women Below Twenty and the Socio-Cultural Determinants of Their Contraceptive Behavior in Low Resource Settings in India
Young Wives: An Exploratory Study of Married Women Below Twenty and the Socio-Cultural Determinants of Their Contraceptive Behavior in Low Resource Settings in India

Studying the complex cultural ecologies of health, particularly fertility-related beliefs and gender norms, and how they interact with the family planning decisions of young couples

The Impact of Ritual on Healthcare Provider Behavior in Bihar, India
The Impact of Ritual on Healthcare Provider Behavior in Bihar, India

Also known as Project RISE (Ritual to Improve Service-delivery and Empower health workers)

 

Related Articles

Articles
Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar (PDF)

Burger, O., Akhauri, S., Chaudhuri, I., Dańko, M.J., Hashmi, F., Johnson, T., Little, E.E., Lunkenheimer, H.G., Mondal, S., Mor, N., Saldanha, N., Schooley, J., Singh, P., & Legare, C.H. (2022). Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar. PLOS Global Public Health, 2(8):e0000756. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000756

Leverage the power of ritual to improve community health worker efficacy and public health outcomes: Lessons from Bihar, India (PDF)

Legare, C., Burger, O., Johnson, T., Mor, N., & Saldanha, N. (2022). The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia 1(10006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lansea.2022.04.002

An Infant Carrier Intervention and Breastfeeding Duration: A Randomized Controlled Trial (PDF)

E.E. Little, C. Cioffi, L. Bain, C.H. Legare, & J. Hahn-Holbrook (2021). Pediatrics, 148(1), e2020049717. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-049717

 

Related Press