Hypertension is a major global public health risk and significant precursor to cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and maternal mortality. A possible strategy to reduce chronic disease in resource-poor areas is social intervention. Research into the possible relationship of social determinants and disease is needed to determine appropriate social interventions. This study aims to determine the association between social capital and hypertension in rural Haitian women.

This 2009 qualitative study investigated Haitian women's most pressing health needs, barriers to meeting those needs and proposed solutions, and how they thought the community and outside organizations should be involved in addressing their needs. The impetus for the study was to get community input into the development of a Family Health Centre in Leogane, Haiti. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 52 adult women in six communities surrounding Leogane.

The purpose of this study was to further knowledge of health care seeking behavior among pregnant women in rural Haiti. Eighty-two pregnant women were interviewed to assess care seeking behaviors during pregnancy, satisfaction with services, reliance on social networks, and management of pregnancy-related illness. Twenty-five percent reported not seeking care in the formal health sector for a pregnancy-related illness; 32% delayed seeking care.

Objective: To examine the association between violence experienced by pregnant Haitian women in the previous 6 months and pregnancy-related symptom distress. Methods: A total of 200 women seeking prenatal care at community health dispensaries in the Artibonite Valley were interviewed. Results: Over 4 in 10 women (44.0%) reported that they had experienced violence in the 6 months prior to interview; 77.8% of these women reported that the violence was perpetrated by an intimate partner.

Given that condom use is not directly under a woman's control, the sexual division of power may play an important role in sexual behavior among pregnant women. We assessed the influence of factors related to the theory of gender and power (e.g., relationship power, abuse history, and sexual communication) on sexual behavior (e.g., two or more partners in the year prior to pregnancy, condom use, condom-use intentions, and STI diagnosis) among 196 pregnant women recruited from five community dispensaries in rural Haiti.