Ethnicity and Health in Colombia: What Do Self-perceived Health Indicators Tell Us?

Abstract

Objective: To compare self-perceived health indicators between ethnic groups in Colombia. Methods:Cross-sectional study with data from the 2007 National Public Health Survey (ENSP-2007). Data from 57,617 people ≥18 years were used. Variables included: belonging to an ethnic group (exposure); self-rated health; mental health problems, injuries for accidents/violence (outcomes); sex, age, education level and occupation (explicative/control). A descriptive study was carried out of the explicative variables, and the prevalence of the outcomes was calculated according to ethnicity, education level and occupation. The association between the exposure variable and the outcomes was estimated by means of adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI using logistic regression. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women.Results: The prevalence of outcomes was higher in people reporting to belong to an ethnic group and differences were found by sex, ethnic groups and health outcomes. Women from the Palenquero group were more likely to report poor self-rated health (aOR 7.04; 95%CI 2.50-19.88) and injuries from accidents/violence (aOR 7.99; 95%CI 2.89-22.07). Indigenous men were more likely to report mental health problems (aOR 1.75; 95%CI 1.41-2.17). Gradients according to ethnicity, education, occupation and sex were found. Conclusions:Minority ethnic groups are vulnerable to reporting poor health outcomes. Political actions are required to diminish health inequalities in these groups.

Atenção primária à saúde de indígenas sul-americanos: revisão integrativa da literatura

“…A aplicação dos descritores resultou na localização de 5 234 artigos nas três bases de dados on-line : 613 na base SciELO, 3 371 na PubMed e 1 250 na base LILACS. Após aplicação dos critérios de inclusão e exclusão previamente estabelecidos, foram selecionados 67 artigos para leitura na íntegra, dos quais 27 foram excluídos por duplicidade, totalizando 40 artigos (1–5, 10, 15–48) na amostra final (figura 1).…”

“…A etnicidade é um importante fator determinante das condições de saúde de um povo, influenciando taxas de morbidade e mortalidade em diferentes grupos étnicos e interferindo no acesso aos serviços de saúde para determinados estratos populacionais (5). Dentro das populações indígenas, a autopercepção do adoecer e a relação das tribos com a prática biomédica, com medicamentos industrializados e com agentes de saúde externos é particular de cada grupo.…”

Carta al editor sobre artículo titulado" Afro-Colombian ethnicity, a paradoxical protective factor against dengue"

“…Most of their observations point to the classification of ethnicity in the study design, in which we recognize a great difficulty to establish the category of Afro-descendant to each one of the individuals. Some proposals to classify that ethnic group in Latin American populations, based on genetic and biological tests, have shown a great miscegenation, which makes classification difficult 3 The method of self-recognition of the ethnicity is imperfect as we see in the methodology of our study; but it is still valid for the scientific community at this time, while other more efficient, reliable and robust methods arise 4 , 5 .…”

Changing Home: Experiences of the Indigenous when Receiving Care in Hospital

“…( 6 ) The epidemiological data of morbidity and general mortality, maternal mortality, neonatal and infant mortality of the indigenous report higher figures than those from the general population, revealing, on one side, socioeconomic barriers of access to basic health services, discrimination due to ethnic reasons, inequity, lack of cultural recognition( 8 ) and, on the other, difficulties related with emerging conflicts due to the cultural characteristics that affect and limit interaction with the health staff. ( 9 ) Adding to the aforementioned that research focused on the phenomena of health and ethnicity in Colombia are not studied in depth possibly due to gaps in the epidemiological data and lack of registry and monitoring systems that include the variable of belonging or self-recognition to an ethnic group,( 10 ) with the aggravating condition that people belonging to these groups, like the case of the indigenous, have poor health results.…”