Chagas, Risk and Health Seeking among Bolivian Women in Catalonia

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore relationships between risk and emotions among Bolivian women living with Chagas disease, and the implications of this for their diagnosis and treatment in Catalonia, Spain. Here, risk is a social phenomenon, while emotions are conceived as embedded in the sociocultural and relational world. Emotions play key risk-related roles as both a cause and consequence of Chagas disease, are the basis of health practices, and allow us to link risk to wider social inequalities. The way we conceive emotions is crucial both theorically and practically.

RESUMEN

En este artículo exploramos las relaciones entre riesgo y emociones, y sus implicaciones en el diagnóstico y tratamiento del Chagas, entre mujeres bolivianas residentes en Catalunya. Concebimos el riesgo como un fenómeno social y las emociones como producto de los contextos socioculturales y relacionales. En los modelos populares, las emociones juegan dos roles en relación al riesgo: como causa y como consecuencia del Chagas. Ello da lugar a prácticas de salud que permiten vincular el riesgo con un contexto más amplio de inequidades sociales. Sostenemos que la forma de concebir las emociones es crucial en el abordaje del riesgo.

KEYWORDS:

• Bolivia
• Chagas disease
• emotions
• health seeking processes
• migrant women
• risk

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Cataluña
• emociones
• mujeres migrantes bolivianas
• procesos asistenciales
• riesgo
• Chagas

Acknowledgments

Our fieldwork followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) and was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards established by the Helsinki Declaration of 1964. Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Anthropology Research Center and the University Rovira i Virgili. We thank PMF-PIPF-DAFITS-URV for funding; Joseph Broadhurst and URV Language Service for proof-reading; and the editor and the anonymous referees for their comments on the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Martí-Franquès Research Grants Programme: (Doctoral grants PMF-PIPF 2013), Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work, Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

Notes on contributors

Laia Ventura-Garcia

Laia Ventura-Garcia has an MSc in Medical Anthropology and PhD in Anthropology and Comunication from Rovira i Virgili University (URV), Tarragona, Spain. She is an adjunct lecturer at URV, Collaborating Teacher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and researcher at the Medical Anthropology Research Center (MARC). She has participated in different health research and intervention projects, including social inequities, infectious diseases, public health and reproduction. ORCID: 0000-0001-7643-767X. Connect her at: MARC-URV. Avda.Catalunya, 35. 43002 Tarragona. Spain. E-Mail: [email protected]

Joan Muela-Ribera

Joan Muela-Ribera holds a master’s degree in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University, London, and a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a Senior Founder member of PASS-International and the Medical Anthropology Research Center at URV. He has published extensively on global health issues, including malaria, structural vulnerability, and access to care. ORCID: 0000-0003-2111-6275. E-Mail: [email protected].

Angel Martínez-Hernáez

Àngel Martínez-Hernáez is Professor of Medical Anthropology and Head of the Medical Anthropology Research Center at URV. He has published extensively on mental health, biomedical cultures, biopolitics, anthropological theory, health policies in Europe and Latin America, and Amazonian cultures, including What’s Behind The Symptom?: On Psychiatric Observation and Anthropological Understanding (2000). ORCID: 0000-0002-5122-7075. E-Mail: [email protected].