Medical Anthropology
All field staff working in Institute programs are expected to adopt an anthropological approach to their work; this means establishing a strong rapport with participating communities that is based on an understanding of their motivation and social organization. This means adopting an open attitude to their beliefs and customs, and it means asking open-ended questions about health-related behaviour. However, particular studies require more detailed information about social and behavioural factors and for this the expertise of the Institute's Medical Anthropology Group is required. Detailed community studies of nutrition, growth, fertility, endocrine status, genetics, disease patterns and social organization have been undertaken by the group, particularly in the fringe areas between the highlands and the lowlands, in Bundi, Gainj, Karimui, the Anga groups and the Hagahai. The group has carried out nutritional studies in the Madang and Wosera areas and in other parts of Papua New Guinea in collaboration with members of various government departments. It took part in a survey of poverty in Papua New Guinea.
Studies on behavioural constraints to family planning and to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, and the evaluation of methods of sexual health education have been undertaken, in both rural and urban areas. In the face of a potentially explosive epidemic of AIDS, studies on sexual and reproductive behaviours in a range of cultural groups throughout PNG were carried out by the group; the findings of this study were published as a monograph in the Institute's monograph series. Studies on peer education as a means of preventing HIV transmission and AIDS are being undertaken in groups at high risk, such as youth, truckers, sailors and dockers, security guards, police and commercial sex workers.
Studies on sexual and reproductive health, on the range of sexual behaviours which might place people at risk, on sexual and reproductive knowledge and attitudes, on sexual health education, with particular emphasis on AIDS and the use of peer educators, and on the acceptability and distribution of condoms have been carried out. In this field close liaison with other agencies and departments working on STD and AIDS is maintained. The Institute has made a major effort to promote the establishment of a National AIDS Council to support and coordinate the urgent national awareness and education program needed to prevent the spread of AIDS.
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