01683nas a2200169   4500000000100000008004100001260003800042653001700080653002600097653002900123100001400152245008600166856007700252300001200329520115400341020001801495       2019                            d  bSpringer International Publishing10aBuruli ulcer10ahealth social science10aHealth Services Research1 aNichter M00aSocial Science Contributions to BU Focused Health Service Research in West-Africa  uhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553823/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK553823.pdf  a249-2723 aHealth social science (HSS) research has contributed in significant ways to our understanding of how rural communities in West Africa perceive and respond to Buruli ulcer (BU), and the challenges facing those involved with BU health service delivery. These challenges range from the need to mount more effective community outreach education programs leading to earlier BU detection to the need to identify and then address predisposing, enabling, and service delivery related factors that result in treatment delay, drop out, and non-adherence. In this chapter, we briefly highlight HSS research that has broadened our knowledge of community response to BU and then consider HSS-inspired BU interventions. Most of the sources we draw upon involve research carried out in Benin, Cameroon, and Ghana. To date, few HSS studies have been conducted in other endemic countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Uganda. We include in our overview a selection of studies conducted by both social scientists and medical researchers investigating social and cultural factors that influence health care decision-making.  a9783030111137