title: Urban elderly with chronic illness: local understandings and emerging discrepancies in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
abstract: Old-age research in developing countries is at its beginning in the social sciences and particularly in anthropology, which has focused on other vulnerable groups, but has not sufficiently addressed emerging health issues of elderly urban dwellers in developing countries. This study investigates the health status of aged people living in cities (i.e. the 'burden of disease'), and how urban elderly experience and give meaning to chronic illnesses in context (i.e. the 'burden of illness'). It correlates the conceptual framework of 'health transition' with prevailing theoretical concepts and models of medical anthropology. The research project was carried out in three cities of North Sulawesi Province; it encompasses elderly people (≥ 60 years) suffering from one or more chronic illnesses. Elderly people experience chronic illnesses in three qualitative ways: illnesses that (1) disturb, (2) threaten, or (3) cause worry. The harsh urban setting reinforces these afflictions, and may lead to economic hardships and social destitution. The meaning of chronic illness of elderly varies distinctly from that of biomedicine and results in divergent health priorities. This article examines patterns of meaning developed by urban elderly with chronic illnesses, and explores how these emic classifications mirror afflictions of city life for these elderly in daily practice.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: VAN Eeuwijk