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Recent Scientific Accomplishments Larsen’s research focuses primarily on different facets of reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, such as infertility in Moshi in Northern Tanzania and the cultural context of infertility in Southern Nigeria. Her work on infertility has focused on different aspects, such as the collection of community data on infertility, characteristics of infertile women, perceptions of primary and secondary infertility and health care services available. In Africa, sexually transmitted diseases are often associated with infertility and Dr. Larsen and her collaborators designed a study to analyze infertility and its correlates. This work resulted in the paper entitled, “Design of a Community-Based Study of Sexually Transmitted Infections/HIV and Infertility in an Urban Area of Northern Tanzania?published in 2006 in Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The high levels of fertility in Africa contributed to social scientists paying relatively little attention to infertility up until the mid-1980s. This situation changed with the work of Dr. Inhorn in Egypt, Dr. Feldman-Salwesberg in Cameroon and Dr. Boerma and Dr. Magalla in Tanzania. Larsen and Hollos used both qualitative and quantitative data to analyze the social effects of infertility on individuals involved and found that primary infertility (having 0 children) was much more devastating than secondary infertility (infertility after having had one or more children) in a semi-urban population with relatively low fertility (TFR=2.9). Preliminary findings indicated that there was a big divide between childless and parous women. This work is presented by Dr. Larsen and Dr. Hollos in “Motherhood in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Social Consequences of Infertility in an Urban Population in Northern Tanzania?and it is currently under review for publication in the journal Population Studies. An analysis of the availability of health care services for infertility suggested that the costs for a full infertility investigation were prohibitive, and new reproductive technologies were not available. This work was published in 2006 in Curare. Larsen is currently the principal investigator (P.I.) on an R01 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NIH/NICHD) entitled, "A Community Study of Infertility in Northern Tanzania" (HD41202). In this research she is assessing the prevalence and determinants of infertility in Moshi, a town in northern Tanzania. Herein, she and her colleagues have investigated local perceptions of infertility, determined female, male and couple factor infertility and described local options and services currently available to infertile individuals or couples. Larsen is also the P.I. on a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (Dr. Hollos at Brown University is the P.I. on a similar grant to Brown University) in which the two investigators merge demographic and anthropological methodology and theory. The study is located in southern Nigeria. It is a comparative study between people living in Patani in the Niger delta and in Ugep in the Cross-River state. Since 2005 Dr. Larsen has been a consultant to some population scientists working at Birzeirt University in Israel. In this collaborative work Dr. Larsen has shared her views and methods used in demographic analyses of reproductive events, such as fertility and infertility. During the next few years, Dr. Larsen’s research will continue to focus on health and behavior in Tanzania, Nigeria and throughout sub-Saharan Africa as well as among the Palestinians in Palestine and Israel. The latter is a new area of Dr. Larsen’s interests. Dr. Larsen has visited researchers at the University of Birzeirt a number of times, given guest lectures and initiated collaborative research projects. The Palestinians have a deep and longtime interest in population issues, particularly in infertility. The collaborative work was initiated on the basis that Dr. Larsen would share her experience working on infertility in sub-Saharan Africa, and further collaborative projects originated from a common interest in demography and reproductive health more broadly. In 2006 and 2007, Dr. Larsen and Palestinian colleagues aim to design and complete a study on infertility of the Palestinians living in Palestine and Israel. | ||||||||
Maryland Population Research Center
0124N Cole Student Activities Building (#162)
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301-405-6403
Fax: 301-405-5743