Receiving health information and implementing recommendations are important factors for household development. However, it is not uncommon for people in the developing world to disregard information and not change their behaviour. The objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how context and knowledge determine health practices and behaviour in order to provide an explanation for why people do not follow health recommendations that would improve their health and the development of their household. In a field study in the Ribáuè district of Mozambique, an ethnographic approach using semi-structured interviews with individuals on the household level as well as stakeholders from both the public and private sector was used to gather the data. New institutionalist theory and health literacy were applied to structure the findings, analyze the data, and provide an explanation for the phenomenon described above. Conclusions from the study demonstrate that individuals must go through a process of obtaining, understanding, and evaluating health information before implementing recommendations. However, the socio-economic, and cultural circumstances in which a person lives can inhibit this process. Furthermore, regulative, normative, and cultural- cognitive underpinnings have proven to both resist and influence changes in health behaviour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-26974 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Vanasse, Bethany, Tombrink, Laura |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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