RESUMO
This article presents a biocultural approach to human health that integrates perspectives from anthropological political economy, ecology, and human adaptability. This approach frames local conditions in relation to macrohistorical forces, and focuses on the social relations that underlie health and responses to illness. It examines the coping responses of human agents operating with a "conditional rationality," and the multiple consequences to these responses. The approach is illustrated with results from a study on the relationship between health and household economy among small-scale farmers of the Nuñoa District in the southern Peruvian Andes. Poor health and nutritional status reflect historical and current economic conditions in the district. Households in illness plant half as many fields at twice the labor cost as healthy households. Among poor households the effects of illness on farming production are exacerbated by their inability to adequately supplement family labor with nonhousehold workers. The consequences of illness can force changes in access to resources and production strategies, thus shaping household health and economy in the future.
Assuntos
Absenteísmo , Agricultura/economia , Antropologia Cultural , Atitude Frente a Saúde/etnologia , Efeitos Psicossociais da Doença , Características da Família/etnologia , Adaptação Psicológica , Adulto , Feminino , Humanos , Estudos Longitudinais , Masculino , Peru , Política , Pobreza , Saúde da População Rural , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Changes in the pattern of growth over a 20-year period are described for a combined rural and semi-urban population in the District of Nuñoa (Puno) in southern Peruvian Andes. Over the past two decades, Andean regions have experienced many socioeconomic changes, including the implementation of agrarian reform policies and increased integration into a market economy. Local changes in Nuñoa have included improved transportation networks, new markets, an expanded public school system, and improved health care facilities. Secular trends in stature and weight have been found to be associated with social and economic development throughout the developing world, including Peru. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a re-study of growth in the Nuñoan population, and to assess whether changing conditions in Nuñoa have resulted in secular increases in growth. A cross-sectional sample of 1,466 children and adults and mixed-longitudinal sample of 404 children (age 3-22), measured between 1983 and 1984, are compared to similar samples collected from the same location between 1964 and 1966. Adolescents are taller, heavier, and somewhat fatter in the present population, although these differences diminish or disappear in adulthood. Age of maturation, peak growth velocities, and cessation of growth may come 1 to 2 years earlier than in the 1960s. As was found in earlier studies, growth velocities are low, the adolescent growth spurt is small, and sexual dimorphism is delayed. No secular trends in adult stature were found. Thus, the effects of social and economic change on nutrition, health, and growth in the population are uneven and generally unclear. This points to inequalities in access to the benefits of change throughout the region.
Assuntos
Altitude , Crescimento , População Rural , Adolescente , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Estatura , Peso Corporal , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Estudos Transversais , Feminino , Humanos , Estudos Longitudinais , Masculino , Peru , Dobras Cutâneas , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
The sample for this study consisted of 28 Aymara males between the ages of 15 and 43 years. The subjects were rural high-altitude natives who were temporarily working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). Mean VO2max was 46 X 5 ml/kg/min. There was a significant negative relationship between VO2max and age in adult porters . However, there was also a significant positive relationship between maximal work output and age and a significant negative relationship between VO2 during submaximal exercise and age. Relative work intensity (VO2/VO2max) during submaximal exercise did not change significantly with age. Thus, even though VO2max decreased significantly with age, these data suggest that there may not be a substantial decrease with age in the adaptive status of these men. Minimal support was found for the hypothesis that chest size in Andean highlanders influences the effectiveness of the oxygen transport system.
Assuntos
Aclimatação , Esforço Físico , Grupos Raciais , Adolescente , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Altitude , Bolívia , Humanos , Masculino , Consumo de Oxigênio , Estatística como Assunto , Tórax/anatomia & histologiaRESUMO
This paper presents the results of an anthropometric survey of 138 rural Aymaran high-altitude males who were working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). All subjects were measured for stature, weight, upper arm circumference, and triceps skinfolds. The body size and composition of the porters were then compared to an Aymaran rural population from the Bolivian highlands, and urban mestizo labourers from La Paz. The porters were smaller than the urban sample, but appeared to be generally representative of rural Aymaran natives with respect to body size and composition, and nutritional status. It is suggested that towards one extreme of nutritional variability, some degree of undernutrition may be indicated, which should be considered in future studies of adaptation to hypoxia among these Andean highlanders.