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Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study

Indigenous communities usually experience higher levels of mortality and poorer access to healthcare services compared to non-indigenous communities. This study aims to understand the most prevalent health problems and their treatment in the Asháninka indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon. W...

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Autores principales: Badanta, Bárbara, Lucchetti, Giancarlo, Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio, Fernández-García, Elena, Tarriño-Concejero, Lorena, Vega-Escaño, Juan, de Diego-Cordero, Rocío
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7672556/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33105800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217728
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author Badanta, Bárbara
Lucchetti, Giancarlo
Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio
Fernández-García, Elena
Tarriño-Concejero, Lorena
Vega-Escaño, Juan
de Diego-Cordero, Rocío
author_facet Badanta, Bárbara
Lucchetti, Giancarlo
Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio
Fernández-García, Elena
Tarriño-Concejero, Lorena
Vega-Escaño, Juan
de Diego-Cordero, Rocío
author_sort Badanta, Bárbara
collection PubMed
description Indigenous communities usually experience higher levels of mortality and poorer access to healthcare services compared to non-indigenous communities. This study aims to understand the most prevalent health problems and their treatment in the Asháninka indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon. We conducted an ethnographic study in order to explore the perceived health problems, the use of traditional medicine and the resources offered by the official Peruvian healthcare system. Field notes and semi-structured interviews were used. A total of 16 indigenous and four non-indigenous people were interviewed, and interpretative analysis was used to identify themes. The Asháninka community is an overlooked population, which, due to distance restrictions, misconceptions and ethnical disparities, is far away from an appropriate healthcare system and is subjected to acute medical conditions such as infections and gastrointestinal problems. This group tends to seek traditional medicine, mostly herbal medications and traditional healers. The use of a health professional is seen as a last resort. Although the official Peruvian health system incorporates community participation strategies to improve the healthcare of indigenous people, the shortage of material, human resources and cultural sensitivity makes this difficult. Healthcare strategies should be devised and implemented in order to minimize health inequality in this population.
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spelling pubmed-76725562020-11-19 Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study Badanta, Bárbara Lucchetti, Giancarlo Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio Fernández-García, Elena Tarriño-Concejero, Lorena Vega-Escaño, Juan de Diego-Cordero, Rocío Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Indigenous communities usually experience higher levels of mortality and poorer access to healthcare services compared to non-indigenous communities. This study aims to understand the most prevalent health problems and their treatment in the Asháninka indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon. We conducted an ethnographic study in order to explore the perceived health problems, the use of traditional medicine and the resources offered by the official Peruvian healthcare system. Field notes and semi-structured interviews were used. A total of 16 indigenous and four non-indigenous people were interviewed, and interpretative analysis was used to identify themes. The Asháninka community is an overlooked population, which, due to distance restrictions, misconceptions and ethnical disparities, is far away from an appropriate healthcare system and is subjected to acute medical conditions such as infections and gastrointestinal problems. This group tends to seek traditional medicine, mostly herbal medications and traditional healers. The use of a health professional is seen as a last resort. Although the official Peruvian health system incorporates community participation strategies to improve the healthcare of indigenous people, the shortage of material, human resources and cultural sensitivity makes this difficult. Healthcare strategies should be devised and implemented in order to minimize health inequality in this population. MDPI 2020-10-22 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7672556/ /pubmed/33105800 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217728 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Badanta, Bárbara
Lucchetti, Giancarlo
Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio
Fernández-García, Elena
Tarriño-Concejero, Lorena
Vega-Escaño, Juan
de Diego-Cordero, Rocío
Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title_full Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title_short Healthcare and Health Problems from the Perspective of Indigenous Population of the Peruvian Amazon: A Qualitative Study
title_sort healthcare and health problems from the perspective of indigenous population of the peruvian amazon: a qualitative study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7672556/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33105800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217728
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