International Community Research

The Center for International Community Health Studies (CICHS) offers a unique research capability for the examination of health issues in developing nations and underserved communities in developed nations. With a focus on applied and policy relevant issues, CICHS utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to community based primary data collection to explore the interaction among social, cultural, environmental, and health variables in the development process. Past projects have focused on topics such as reproductive health, child health, diarrheal disease, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Research Methodology

Collaboration between the academically based research teams and the community under study is an important aspect of the CICHS approach. Community-based participation is built into all phases of the research process, including design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of results. CICHS has found that local input and participation is an essential aspect of the research process.

CICHS utilizes a research process that incorporates many different data types and analysis approaches, drawing from primary and secondary data sources, and applying both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Some techniques that CICHS has used successfully include:

• Utilizing systems analysis to develop theory driven intervention program models for testing and evaluation
• Using geographic information systems (GIS) to link available secondary health data with geographic identifiers in order to locate high risk populations
• Discovering community based knowledge, attitudes, practices and resources that relate to the problem under study using a variety of techniques including rapid assessment procedures, field observation, interviewing, focus groups, and other qualitative methods
• Designing and implementing large scale, quantitative surveys for systematic collection of data at the individual and household levels
• Development of empirically generated intervention designs utilizing salient cultural, community and social constructs

Current Projects

Male Sexual Concerns and Prevention of HIV/STDs in India

(National Institute for Mental Health, Grant period, September 1, 2001 to August 31, 2006, PI: Stephen L. Schensul; co-PIs: Ravi K. Verma; Bonnie K. Nastasi, T.K. Roy, and G. Rama Rao)

This proposal seeks to address the difficult problem of engaging males in reproductive health education, sexual risk reduction, and early treatment of HIV/STD in urban communities in India, a country where HIV/STD rates are increasing at a dramatic rate and national policy makers are seeking new approaches to prevention. This project seeks to identify this new approach by developing, testing, implementing and evaluating a culturally based intervention that is centered on male sexual concerns about masculinity, vitality, sexual performance and fertility. The involvement of males in the reduction of sexually risky behavior and the improvement of reproductive health are vital to reducing HIV/STD transmission both for themselves and for their female and male sexual partners. Finding an approach that begins with and addresses men's most salient reproductive health issues can establish a policy framework and an intervention methodology that has significant implications for India as well as for other developing and developed countries. » More on the male health concerns project…

Assessing Women's Risk of HIV/STD in Marriage in India

(National Institute for Mental Health, Grant period, September 1, 2002-August 31, 2004; PI: Stephen L. Schensul; co-PIs: Ravi K. Verma; Bonnie K. Nastasi, T.K. Roy, and G. Rama Rao)

This project focuses on married women in slum communities in the northeast portion of Bombay (Mumbai) and addresses the call for, HIV prevention and intervention strategies…[for]…married, monogamous Indian women whose self-perception of HIV risk may be low, but whose risk is inextricably linked to the behavior of their husbands (Newman et al., 2001, p. 250). Despite the overwhelming evidence of the marital unit as a significant locale for transmission for women throughout the world, there has been little effort to explore the marital relationship as a focus for intervention in the prevention of HIV and other STDs. » More on the women's risk project…

Addressing Masculinity as a Strategy to Reduce HIV/AIDS Related Risky Sexual Behavior among Young Men

(April 1, 2003-March 31, 2006, PIs: Ravi K. Verma, G. Rama Rao; Co-PIs: Stephen L. Schensul, Bonnie K. Nastasi)

About half of all the new HIV infections in India are in the age group 15-24 years. Statistics from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2000), indicate that the HIV prevalence among youth (ages 15-24) in India, is between 0.4-0.8 percent for females and between 0.1-0.6 percent for males. The overall objective of this intervention research is to reduce HIV/AIDS risk behavior among youth and young adults aged 16-25 by developing and testing community-based strategies in three Mumbai slum communities. » More on the young men's project…

Prior Research

The current CICHS focus on HIV/STD related research is based on research conducted among South Asian and South Asian derived populations in Mauritius and Sri Lanka in the following projects:

Behavioral Surveillance for HIV-related risk behavior in Sri Lanka (1996-1999) World Bank, J. Schensul, Principal Investigator, K. Tudor Silva and S. Schensul, Co-Principal Investigators.

Unequal Partnerships: Gender and Initiation of Sexual Activity in Sri Lanka (1996-98) Andrew Mellon Foundation, S. Schensul, Principal Investigator.

Youth and Sexual Risk in Sri Lanka (1994-1997) A grant from the International Center for Research on Women, with funds from USAID. Center for Intersectional Community Health Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka and the Center for International Community Health Studies, Department of Community Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center. S. Schensul, Principal Investigator

Young Women, Work and AIDS-Related Risk Behavior in Mauritius (1991-1994). International Center for Research on Women, with funds from USAID S. Schensul, Principal Investigator

RISHTA

These CICHS-IIPS-ICR projects have facilitated the organization a new program at the International Institute for Population Sciences entitled "Research and Intervention in Sexual Health: Theory to Action" in which the acronym RISHTA means "relationship" in Hindi and Urdu. The RISHTA team now consists of:

• Dr. T.K. Roy (co-PI) Professor and Director
• Dr. G. Rama Rao (co-PI) Professor and Associate Director
• Dr. Hemkuthong Llungdim, Lecturer
• Dr. Saggutri Niranjan, Lecturer
• Dr. S.K. Singh, Reader
• Dr. Sharad S. Narvekar, Project Coordinator
• Dr. Sumitra Sharma, Senior Research Officer
• Dr. Mandar Mainkar, Senior Research Officer
• Mr. Rajendra Singh, Senior Intervention Officer
• 3 Research Officers
• 6 Associate Research Officers
• 3 Research Assistants

Home | About CICHS | Education | Research | Training | Publications | Resource Links | Site Map