title: Participation of African social scientists in malaria control: identifying enabling and constraining factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the enabling and constraining factors that influence African social scientists involvement in malaria control.
  
  
  METHODS
  Convenience and snowball sampling was used to identify participants. Data collection was conducted in two phases: a mailed survey was followed by in-depth phone interviews with selected individuals chosen from the survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most participants did not necessarily seek malaria as a career path. Having a mentor who provided research and training opportunities, and developing strong technical skills in malaria control and grant or proposal writing facilitated career opportunities in malaria. A paucity of jobs and funding and inadequate technical skills in malaria limited the type and number of opportunities available to social scientists in malaria control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding the factors that influence job satisfaction, recruitment and retention in malaria control is necessary for better integration of social scientists into malaria control. However, given the wide array of skills that social scientists have and the variety of deadly diseases competing for attention in Sub Saharan Africa, it might be more cost effective to employ social scientists to work broadly on issues common to communicable diseases in general rather than solely on malaria.
authors.affiliation: Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Drive, SW., NCPC Suite 344, Atlanta, Georgia 30310, USA. pdn8@cdc.gov <pdn8@cdc.gov>
authors.forename: Paulyne M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Ngalame
authors.forename: Holly Ann
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nyamongo
authors.forename: Samba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Diop
authors.forename: Felisbela
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gaspar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa; D034742:Electronic Mail; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012942:Social Sciences / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016636:Telefacsimile; D000078329:Workforce; D014956:Writing / Q000592:standards