Folk and Clinical Medical Utilization Patterns Among Mejicano Migrant Farmworkers

Bibliographic Data

ID6064105
AuthorsDoris P Slesinger (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Michael Richards (0000-0001-5274-8887, University of Wisconsin–Madison)
Year1981
Volume3
Issue1
Pages59-73
Publication date1981-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0739-9863 • E-ISSN: 1552-6364
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/073998638100300104
OpenAlexW1878670907
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited12

Each year, migrant workers from south Texas and Mexico travel north more than 2,000 miles for seasonal work in agriculture. They carry with them knowledge of both basic folk medicine and clinical medicine. This paper investigates migrants' utilization of folk healing and clinical medicine in both the sending and receiving states. Two methods of collecting data were employed: (a) a structured interview with a 10% stratified random sample of the workers when in Wisconsin and (b) an intensive ethnographic study of health behavior of 12 families when residing both in Wisconsin and Texas. Findings suggest that specific patterns of utilization depend mainly on structural conditions such as geographic location and availability of folk or clinical medical services and on the nature of the illness to be cured, and depend secondarily on sex, age, income, and educational level. For the migrants, there is little incompatibility between medical systems; people move easily between one and the other, often supplementing one with the other

Archaeology · Ethnography · Family medicine · Folk medicine · Geography · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Traditional medicine · Agriculture and Farm Safety · Engineering · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Medicine · Gerontology

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