Anthropology in research on the quality of health services

Abstract

Current crisis in the health sector has increased research directed towards quality of health services. Public health research on quality of services commonly assessed adherence to predefined criteria for building structure, equipment and technical procedures. The paper explores the contribution anthropology can make to health services research by including a lay perspective in quality evaluation. Rapid approaches to the lay perspective assume that conflict between the providers and users of health services result only from the different explanatory models and are thus resolvable through training and education. The holistic approach of anthropology demonstrates that service quality must be located in the wider contexts of health service structure, and the socio-economic circumstances of user's lives as well as differences between medical and lay models of health.