College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2022 May 2;22(1):873. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13323-5.
Malnutrition among children under five years of age is a major public health issue in many low and middle-income constrained countries. According to WHO, 5.3 million under-five children die every year and about 45% of these deaths are linked to malnutrition. While it is clear that poverty and lack of food are important factors in children's malnutrition, less is known about the ways in which local conceptions of malnutrition affect parents' treatment choices. In Ethiopia, child malnutrition is a severe public health problem and a common cause of child death, and this paper explores the local views of malnutrition and how these shape people's health-seeking behaviour.
The study was conducted in eastern Ethiopia from December 2017 to January 2019, conducting interviews and focus group discussions to explore different views and treatment options malnutrition. The study used grounded theory because it allows new and unexpected themes to arise from the data. Researchers' assumptions on local terminologies of child malnutrition are also controlled as a principle of ground theory.
Child malnutrition was not only perceived to be related to lack of food but was understood in a wider local conceptualization of health and illness. Parents often relied on healers because they are long-standing members of the community, possess indigenous knowledge, and cost less than other options. Because health professionals and the community perceive and speak of health very differently, people often do not seek support from health services. The misalignments between how health professionals and healers diagnose and treat malnourished children have implications on the possibilities to implement change to reduce malnutrition.
Through an exploration of people's own terminology and understandings of what a malnourished child is, as well as the underlying reasons for their illness, this paper explores how people understand malnutrition symptoms and why many tend to rely on healers rather than seeking care from health centres.
五岁以下儿童营养不良是许多中低收入国家的一个主要公共卫生问题。根据世界卫生组织的数据，每年有 530 万五岁以下儿童死亡，其中约 45%的死亡与营养不良有关。虽然贫困和食物匮乏显然是儿童营养不良的重要因素，但人们对当地对营养不良的概念如何影响父母的治疗选择知之甚少。在埃塞俄比亚，儿童营养不良是一个严重的公共卫生问题，也是儿童死亡的常见原因，本文探讨了当地对营养不良的看法以及这些看法如何塑造人们的寻医行为。
本研究于 2017 年 12 月至 2019 年 1 月在埃塞俄比亚东部进行，通过访谈和焦点小组讨论来探讨对营养不良的不同看法和治疗选择。本研究采用扎根理论，因为它允许从数据中出现新的和意想不到的主题。研究人员对当地儿童营养不良术语的假设也被控制为扎根理论的原则。
儿童营养不良不仅被认为与缺乏食物有关，而且被理解为更广泛的当地健康和疾病概念化。父母经常依赖治疗师，因为他们是社区的长期成员，拥有本土知识，而且比其他选择成本更低。由于卫生专业人员和社区对健康的看法和表述非常不同，人们通常不会寻求卫生服务的支持。卫生专业人员和治疗师在诊断和治疗营养不良儿童方面的错位对实施减少营养不良的变革的可能性产生影响。
通过探索人们对营养不良儿童的术语和理解，以及他们患病的潜在原因，本文探讨了人们如何理解营养不良症状，以及为什么许多人倾向于依赖治疗师而不是寻求卫生中心的护理。
