Overcoming language and cultural barriers: a graphical communication tool to perform a parasitological screening in two vulnerable populations from Argentina.
This is an exploratory study of the application of a support tool for the detection of asymptomatic subjects carrying enteric parasites in two vulnerable populations in Argentina: a shantytown in the city of Buenos Aires and a rural Wichí indigenous community in the province of Chaco. The ethnic and cultural diversity, high illiteracy rate, and language barriers called for the development of an auxiliary resource to explain stool sample collection procedures. In individual interviews with each family, the authors used two instructional guidance leaflets in comic strip format depicting the procedures. They evaluated the acceptance of the graphical communication tool on the basis of the number of retrieved samples. Percentages of respondent families were 72.2% and 66.7%, respectively. Definitive validation of these instruments would allow their use in community studies, community service learning experiences, and research on aboriginal communities that would otherwise be excluded from studies on health status.
Laboratorio de Parasitología Clínica, Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, e Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud Pública, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
María Pía
MP
Buyayisqui
Noemí
N
Bordoni
Graciela
G
Garbossa
D001118:Argentina; D002359:Cartoons as Topic; D002648:Child; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036301:Qualitative Research; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D035862:Vulnerable Populations