Africa is experiencing dramatic processes of social change, with evident consequences for health. This collection of papers examines the impacts of modern developments on health in Tanzania with a view to establishing patterns at a continental level. The contributors consider how social change is impacting on young people's health, HIV/AIDS and mental health. It further considers the implications of poverty and social inequalities for health, concluding that the poorest suffer the adverse health effects of social change disproportionately; and that the effects of globalisation, if unchecked left, herald severe consequences for the health of poor countries.