Evaluating primary health care and nutrition programs in the context of national development

This paper illustrates an evaluation model incorporating research techniques of both primary health care and social anthropology. The case in point is the Jamaican Government's Community Health Aide Programme, which employs over 1300 auxiliary health workers to serve the low-income population of the island. The study demonstrates a cardinal principle of the anthropological approach--a grounded and holistic understanding of the social and environmental context is necessary to translate data into useful information. The study demonstrates connections between the distribution of care, the power of the cosmopolitan medical profession, and the Jamaican political patronage system. Finally, the impact of the program is assessed on child growth measures against the background of the Jamaican economy as it evolved from 1970 to 1980.