Medicina tradicional como fuente de resolución de problemas de salud infantil. Perspectiva para el autocuidado de la salud

Abstract

Results of a survey on the utilization of traditional medicine as the way of solving health problems of children are presented. The questionnaire was applied to 133 mothers seeking care at an outpatient clinic. 71% of them used both traditional and formal system of health care; 20.6% used only the formal system and 8.40/o used mostly the traditional one. The principal problems leading to seek traditional medicine were respiratory tract infections (71,3%), digestive diseases (46.2%) and fever (34.0%). The way of solving the problems were by the mother herself in 61.3% of cases, by another non physician person in 36,8% and by other relatives in 32,1%. Motivations leading to seek traditional medicine were the insufficient capacity of the formal system in 41,5% of cases and lack of interese and lack of explanations by the pact of the physician (perceived by mothers) in 27%. Besides, 43,8% of mothers found the informed system faster than the formal in provideing care and 37.7% believed that some diseases heal without treatment.