Open AccessData availability on men's involvement in families in sub‐Saharan Africa to inform family‐centred programmes for children affected by HIV and AIDS
Author(s) -
Hosegood Victoria,
Madhavan Sangeetha
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of the international aids society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.724
H-Index - 62
ISSN - 1758-2652
DOI - 10.1186/1758-2652-13-s2-s5
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , population , data collection , developing country , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , gerontology , family medicine , environmental health , nursing , economic growth , sociology , social science , economics
The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS recently recommended that programmes for children affected by HIV and AIDS in sub‐Saharan Africa direct more support to families. Interest has grown in including men in such family‐orientated interventions by researchers, policy makers, and community and non‐governmental organizations. However, there is a lack of good quality data on men's involvement with children in the diverse settings in sub‐Saharan Africa. In addition, limited research has examined their role in providing emotional, material support and protection for HIV‐ and AIDS‐affected children and families. In this paper, we describe the availability of data about men and families, in particular fathers, in ongoing sub‐Saharan African surveys and longitudinal population cohorts. We discuss the conceptual and measurement issues associated with data collection on men's involvement in these types of studies. We consider the opportunities for improving the collection of data about men and families in household surveys and population cohorts in order to inform the design and evaluation of family‐centred interventions for children affected by HIV and AIDS.