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Modelling social reality: limitations to measuring the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households
Author(s) -
Wouters E.,
Vermeiren P.,
Katabaro M.,
Van Damme W.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02569.x
Subject(s) - human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , environmental health , rural population , medicine , geography , socioeconomics , sociology , population , immunology
This letter to the editor discusses an article in which Seeley et al. evaluated the predictions made by HIV impact studies in the 1980s and 1990s which foresaw progressive and systematic declines in agricultural production with dire consequences for rural livelihoods. Their research efforts showed that the predicted progressive and systematic decline did not seem to have materialized and they came to the conclusion that HIV and AIDS have sometimes thrown households into disarray and poverty but more often reduced development. The author questions several elements of the evaluation including: predicting the effects of HIV/AIDS as a sudden shock is not reflecting the reality in the field and the conceptual framework pays little attention to other factors besides HIV/AIDS affecting the social system.