What is it about?
Liver fluke infection is a major concern in Thailand as it is a risk factor for cancer. Many things have been done to improve the situation (e.g., health education, drug development, improved sanitation system). Yet, none of them has worked. This research discovered the fundamental cause that probably lied beneath any harmful health behavior, that is, the people's worldviews about ethics, morality, life and death.
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Why is it important?
The paper suggests a new way of altering high-risk behaviors. We researchers cannot simply come up with predetermined, closed-ended interventions targeting particular high-risk behaviors. Instead, we need to understand our own worldviews and encourage people to think for themselves. The study suggests a new way of thinking about health problems.
Perspectives
It is an honor to co-write the article with my former professor, Len, who knows me very well personally and professionally. He guided me through all the ups and downs, and the grand idea of this study was made more concrete through him and my friend and editor, Bob Lamoreaux. We sincerely hope that looking deeper into people's worldviews and how people think about life and death would fundamentally change any harmful health behaviors that hold them down.
Sara Samiphak
Chulalongkorn University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Battle of Worldviews: A Case Study of Liver Fluke Infection in Khon Kaen, Thailand, Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, August 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2156587217723497.
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