Makoge Valerie, Maat Harro, Vaandrager Lenneke, Koelen Maria
a Health and Society (HSO) group , Wageningen University , Wageningen , The Netherlands.
b Medical Research Centre , Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plant Studies (IMPM) , Yaoundé , Cameroon.
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2018 Dec;13(1):1435098. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2018.1435098.
For many people living in low-income countries, poverty implies an increased exposure to conditions that threaten health and wellbeing as well as reduced capacity to maintain health. Despite the challenging conditions caused by poverty, people may consider themselves healthy because they have learned to cope with their situation probably as a result of life experiences which expose people to both challenges and potential solutions. In this paper we present results from studying health and wellbeing challenges and mechanisms to cope with challenges among two different groups of people who are living under conditions of poverty: workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) and students of the university of Buea and the university of Yaoundé.
We performed a cross-sectional study, interviewing 21 CDC workers and 21 students. Results Our study reveals context-specific stressors emerging from poor work conditions and study pressure as well as non-context-specific stressors perceived by respondents as living conditions, poor healthcare and financial uncertainty. Respondents devised coping mechanisms to overcome exactly those stressors such as searching for additional money sources, preventive action towards hazardous living conditions and alternative medical support.
We conclude that supporting and promoting such avenues is essential for enhanced and continuous coping with stressors.
对于许多生活在低收入国家的人来说，贫困意味着面临更多威胁健康和福祉的状况，同时维持健康的能力也会下降。尽管贫困带来了诸多挑战，但人们可能仍认为自己健康，这或许是因为他们通过生活经历学会了应对自身处境，这些经历既带来挑战，也提供了潜在的解决办法。在本文中，我们展示了对生活在贫困条件下的两组不同人群（喀麦隆发展公司（CDC）的工人以及布埃亚大学和雅温得大学的学生）的健康与福祉挑战以及应对挑战机制的研究结果。
我们开展了一项横断面研究，对21名CDC工人和21名学生进行了访谈。结果我们的研究揭示了源自恶劣工作条件和学习压力的特定情境应激源，以及被受访者视为生活条件、医疗保健差和经济不确定性的非特定情境应激源。受访者设计了应对机制来克服这些应激源，比如寻找额外的资金来源、对危险生活条件采取预防措施以及寻求替代医疗支持。
我们得出结论，支持和促进这些途径对于增强和持续应对应激源至关重要。
