Laboratório de Ecologia e Evolução de Sistemas Socioecológicos (LEA), Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
Programa de pós-graduação em Botânica, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2018 Nov 14;13(11):e0206190. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206190. eCollection 2018.
The presence of mainstream medicine in local medical systems inserts a set of external treatments and concepts that generate adjustments in the local conceptions of health and disease. What points in the system are most receptive to change? Who are the residents most likely to adopt these external treatments to deal with diseases? To answer these questions, this work used a study model consisting of the simultaneous use of medicinal plants and modern medicine, testing whether diseases that require greater treatment efforts are the main targets of adherence to modern medicine and if socioeconomic characteristics of residents can cause intracultural variation in relation to simultaneous use. To obtain socioeconomic data on the knowledge of medicinal plants and simultaneous use of these resources with modern medicine, semistructured interviews were conducted in a rural community that has easy access to modern medicine. Participatory workshops were held to access the local perceptions about the frequency of occurrence and severity of illnesses. A multilevel logistic regression model was applied for data analysis. We found that chronic, severe and frequently occurring diseases in the community tended to show greater simultaneous use locally. Among the socioeconomic factors, we determined that high educational levels positively influenced the combined use of plants and modern medicine. The need to ensure the cure of frequent, severe and chronic diseases is a factor that leads residents to seek a greater number of possible treatments, stimulating the combined use of plants and modern medicine. Residents with higher educational levels were more likely to use a combination of treatments than those with lower educational levels, demonstrating that more participation in formal education may facilitate the combined use of medicinal plants and modern medicine.
主流医学在当地医疗体系中的存在引入了一套外部治疗方法和概念，这些方法和概念会对当地的健康和疾病观念产生调整。该体系中哪些方面最容易发生变化？哪些居民最有可能采用这些外部治疗方法来应对疾病？为了回答这些问题，本研究采用了一种同时使用草药和现代医学的研究模型，检验了需要更多治疗努力的疾病是否是接受现代医学治疗的主要目标，以及居民的社会经济特征是否会导致与同时使用相关的文化内变异。为了获取关于草药知识和同时使用这些资源与现代医学的社会经济数据，在一个可以方便获得现代医学的农村社区进行了半结构化访谈。举办了参与式研讨会，以了解当地对疾病发生频率和严重程度的看法。应用多水平逻辑回归模型进行数据分析。我们发现，社区中慢性、严重和频繁发生的疾病往往在当地表现出更大的同时使用。在社会经济因素中，我们确定高教育水平对植物和现代医学的联合使用有积极影响。确保治愈频繁、严重和慢性疾病的需求是促使居民寻求更多可能治疗方法的一个因素，从而刺激了植物和现代医学的联合使用。教育水平较高的居民比教育水平较低的居民更有可能采用联合治疗方法，这表明更多地参与正规教育可能会促进草药和现代医学的联合使用。
