HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGING AGRARIAN ECONOMIES IN THE SOUTHERN ANDES

The herders of the cooperative reported less illness and work disruption than members of the town or community. The diversity of their diet has increased, and their children appear to be better nourished. They live in the only site to clearly benefit from the agrarian reform. The households in the agrarian community, which reported the most illness and work disruption, and whose children showed the greatest degree of undernutrition, neither gained nor lost land in the reform. People from the town showed the greatest increase in dietary diversity among the three locales, but fell between the two rural sites in levels of illness and nutritional status. Substantial variation in diet, nutrition and health status was present in the town and reflected the increased socioeconomic variation which had occurred in the town over the past 15 yr. -from Author