Use of Nonallopathic Healing Methods by Latina Women at Midlife

Bibliographic Data

ID11039904
AuthorsM Barton Laws (0000-0002-0790-5879, Both authors are with the Latin American Health Institute, Boston, Mass, and the Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.), Nicolás Carballeira (Both authors are with the Latin American Health Institute, Boston, Mass, and the Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.)
Year2003
Volume93
Issue4
Pages524-a-525
Publication date2003-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.93.4.524-a
PMID12660185
OpenAlexW1979236837
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited6

Bair et al. found that use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by Latina women around menopausal age in Newark, NJ, is less common than use by women of other ethnicities in certain other cities.1 The study operationalized CAM use in ways that do not correspond to the methods or labels typically used in Caribbean and South American societies.2–5 For example, “folk medicine,” an anthropological term,6 would not be recognized by most users.7 In 1995–96, we developed a series of items in Spanish and English on the use of nonallopathic healing,8 based on discussions with key informants, review of the literature, field testing, implementation in a household survey,9 and qualitative interviews with Latina mothers attending a pediatric clinic. We implemented the sequence in a survey, based on area probability sampling, of women 40 years and older living in 11 Massachusetts cities.10 The sequence in English included “teas, herbs or home remedies,” “Herbalist,” “Christian faith healing service,” “Spiritist,” and the untranslatable terms botanica (stores that sell herbs and religious supplies) and Santero, (a practitioner of a Caribbean system of African origin), among others. (Table 1 ▶; the full sequence, in English and Spanish, is available from the corresponding author.) There were 499 respondents, 137 of whom were Latina. Ninety-seven percent of the Latina respondents were interviewed in Spanish, and 96.4% were born in Puerto Rico or outside the United States. TABLE 1— Women Aged 40 to 55 Who Used Nonallopathic Healing Modalities in Past Year, by Ethnicity: Massachusetts, 1997. For comparison with the findings of Bair et al., we limited this analysis to women aged 40 to 55 years (N = 281). We found much higher rates of use of nonallopathic healing methods among Latina respondents, with use of home remedies the most common modality (38.1% of respondents). Respondents specified almost all of these as plant products such as star anise, orange leaf, tilo, and una de gato (“cat’s claw”), available at local botanicas and bodegas, or groceries. The much lower proportion of Latinas whom Bair et al. reported as using herbal remedies (8%) may have resulted from the specification “such as homeopathy or Chinese herbs or teas.” Christian, Santeria, and Espiritismo spiritual healing do not fit into any of the categories used by Bair et al. A far higher proportion of Latina women (59%) in our sample reported using at least one nonallopathic method in the past year than women of other ethnicities (χ2 = 66.777, P < .0005). These results demonstrate the importance, in cross-cultural studies, of conducting formative research to identify appropriate item specifications. Otherwise, comparisons are likely to be invalid

Afro-Caribbean · Ethnic group · Faith · Family medicine · Immigration · Operationalization · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies · Demography · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Gender Studies · History · Medicine · Phytochemistry Medicinal Plant Applications · Psychology · Gerontology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub