2 research outputs found
Concepts of health, disease, and treatment in a rural village of Senegal
In order to carry out an efficacious training
programme for community health workers (CHWs) in a
rural village of Senegal, we considered it useful to conduct
a study on the conceptions of health, sickness and treatment
of the village community. The study was conducted
by four nurses and a physician, with the collaboration of an
anthropologist, using the research method of ethno-nursing,
with the aid of semi-structured interviews. People in the
study areas have integrated conceptions deriving from
biomedicine into their local knowledge and practice. Two
interpretations are attributed to the concept of health:
‘‘individualistic’’ and those that perceive health as an effect
of harmony at a social level; some describe the human
body using elements of anatomy and physiology, while
others understand it as a means of relating between environment
and society; sickness is placed in relation to biological
agents, but also to the world of the supernatural.
The treatment of sickness is entrusted in part to modern
medicine and in part to traditional healers. The training
programme for the CHWs should take into account the
conceptions of health, sickness and treatment of the village
population. The traditional healers could be involved in a
more active collaboration