Epidemiology and Culture

James A. Trostle is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Urban Initiatives at Trinity College, Hartford. He has worked in more than 35 countries during his career in international health, and has been invited to lecture in several others. He has co-authored, in Spanish, De la Investigación en Salud a la Política: La Difícil Traducción (From Health Research to Policy: The Difficult Translation). He has published in Health, Policy and Planning; Neurology; The Annual Review of Anthropology; Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry; Medical Anthropology Quarterly; and most frequently in Social Science & Medicine. Professor Trostle has been a Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization, and presently sits on a WHO Task Force on Research to Policy as well as on the WHO Human Reproduction Programme Regional Advisory Panel for the Americas.

• 1. Introduction; 2. The origins of an integrated approach in anthropology and epidemiology; 3. Disease patterns and assumptions: unpacking variables; 4. Cultural issues in measurement and bias; 5. Anthropological contributions to the study of cholera; 6. Anthropological and epidemiological collaboration to help communities become healthier; 7. Perceiving and representing risk; 8. Conclusion.

'The strength of this book lies in its broad scope that covers history, methods, case studies, and current issues. Each chapter has a further reading list and importantly, Trostle provides comprehensive references which include some of the most seminal research studies in the fields of social medicine, social epidemioloy, and medical anthropology … Trostle's book is the first that I am aware of that provides such a broad and accessible review of the history and current state of the field of culture/medical anthropology.' Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy