Thresholds of Morbidity among Women in a Peri-Urban Community of Maharashtra, India: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

While data on perceived morbidity often correlate poorly with clinical morbidity, they can provide an indicator for how women’s concepts of health change in the context of larger transitions in gender and health systems. Drawing on multiple sources of data on perceived morbidity among women in a peri-urban settlement of Maharashtra, India, this article examines variations in women’s thresholds for articulating illness conditions. Data on women’s health were collected from married women aged 15–49, using four different instruments: focus group discussion guides; general illness narrative guidelines; individual open-ended questions about morbidity; and a highly structured checklist. Comparing the data and the assumptions underlying these instruments, the article identifies four different thresholds relating to situational, agency, prototypical and dimensional aspects of women’s experience and subsequent reporting of morbidity.