LIMITATIONS OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IN THE STUDY OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT

Sociologists and, more recently, critical medical anthropologists have been arguing for a refocusing of the analysis of health and health ca re towards a perspective which considers the broader global political economy. In the context of the debt crisis and IMF/World Bank-inspired structural adjustment policies, the political economy theoretical per spective is becoming even more relevant in the analysis of health unde rdevelopment in many 'Third World' countries. This study focuses on th e direct and indirect effects of the Jamaican debt crisis and structur al adjustment programmes on health care services and health standards. In this paper it is argued that there are methodological problems usi ng quantitative data when studying the effects of structural adjustmen t. In addition to providing a limited account of the effects, it is ar gued that the basic problem is a matter of the availability and reliab ility of the quantitative data in many 'Third World' countries. It is argued that some of these problems could be overcome by the applicatio n of qualitative micro-level analysis. This type of methodology is imp ortant to ascertain the effects of global processes at the grass roots level and to gain insights into what those working in the health sect or are experiencing and what they perceive as the effects, if any, of structural adjustment policies. This has often been missing from the i mpersonal accounts offered by quantitative research on the subject to date.