Mexican use of lead in the treatment of empacho: community, clinic, and longitudinal patterns.
This paper discusses research designed to investigate community, clinic, and longitudinal patterns in use of lead as a treatment for empacho, a folk illness manifest by gastrointestinal symptoms. The same questionnaire used in a clinic-based study seven years previously in Guadalajara, Mexico, was used to interview a randomly selected community sample: in addition, the study was repeated at the same clinic sites that had been studied previously. The goals were to investigate: (1) What are community wide prevalences of empacho and use of lead based remedies? (2) To what extent are current patterns of use of lead for treatment of empacho in clinic-based samples similar to those seven years ago. The attributable risk to the population as a whole from use of lead based remedies was found to be 11% of the households of Guadalajara. Essentially this same estimate was seen for the 1987 and 1994 clinic populations. Interestingly, while percentages of lead users have declined since 1987, twice as great a percentage of informants reported treating empacho. Other patterns originally identified in 1987 persisted in 1994; lead use continues to be associated with lower levels of parental education and income.
Baer
R D
RD
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620, USA.
Garcia de Alba
J
J
Leal
R M
RM
Plascencia Campos
A R
AR
Goslin
N
N
D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D002648:Child; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008800:Mexico; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014839:Vomiting / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology
D007854:Lead