Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2010 Apr 1;100 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S140-5. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.162479. Epub 2010 Feb 10.
We explored covariates of the use of picuristes (traditional health workers with no formal medical training who provide intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intravenous injections, typically with nonsterile needles) in the Haitian community of Miami-Dade County, Florida.
We surveyed a community-based sample of 205 Haitian immigrants and adult children of Haitian immigrants. Through logistic regression analysis, we sought to corroborate the correlates of picuriste use identified in previous qualitative interviews of picuristes and their clients.
Picuriste injections had been obtained by 17.6% of our respondents. After control for demographic characteristics, we found that participants who reported that a trusted person recommended a picuriste were 3.9 times as likely as participants without a recommendation to have used a picuriste. Similarly, participants who believed that the benefits associated with picuriste use were worth any resulting problems were 4.5 times as likely as those without this belief to have patronized a picuriste.
A significant minority of our sample patronized picuristes. Our data identified factors associated with picuriste use and shed light on a frequently hidden cultural health behavior.
我们探讨了在佛罗里达州迈阿密-戴德县的海地社区中，皮库里斯特（未经正规医学培训但提供肌内、皮下和静脉注射的传统卫生工作者，通常使用非无菌针头）使用的相关因素。
我们对 205 名海地移民和海地移民的成年子女进行了基于社区的抽样调查。通过逻辑回归分析，我们试图证实之前对皮库里斯特及其客户进行的定性访谈中确定的皮库里斯特使用的相关因素。
我们的受访者中有 17.6%的人接受过皮库里斯特注射。在控制人口统计学特征后，我们发现，报告有可信赖的人推荐皮库里斯特的参与者使用皮库里斯特的可能性是没有推荐人的参与者的 3.9 倍。同样，那些认为与皮库里斯特使用相关的好处值得任何由此产生的问题的参与者使用皮库里斯特的可能性是没有这种信念的参与者的 4.5 倍。
我们的样本中有相当一部分人光顾皮库里斯特。我们的数据确定了与皮库里斯特使用相关的因素，并揭示了一种经常隐藏的文化健康行为。
