Health dynamics in camps and on campuses: stressors and coping strategies for wellbeing among labourers and students in Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Purpose: For many people living in low-income countries, poverty implies an increased exposure to conditions that threaten health and wellbeing as well as reduced capacity to maintain health. Despite the challenging conditions caused by poverty, people may consider themselves healthy because they have learned to cope with their situation probably as a result of life experiences which expose people to both challenges and potential solutions. In this paper we present results from studying health and wellbeing challenges and mechanisms to cope with challenges among two different groups of people who are living under conditions of poverty: workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) and students of the university of Buea and the university of Yaoundé.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study, interviewing 21 CDC workers and 21 students.

Results Our study reveals context-specific stressors emerging from poor work conditions and study pressure as well as non-context-specific stressors perceived by respondents as living conditions, poor healthcare and financial uncertainty. Respondents devised coping mechanisms to overcome exactly those stressors such as searching for additional money sources, preventive action towards hazardous living conditions and alternative medical support.

Conclusion: We conclude that supporting and promoting such avenues is essential for enhanced and continuous coping with stressors.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty-related diseases
• Cameroon
• Cameroon Development Corporation
• salutogenesis
• University of Buea
• University of Yaoundé

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the respondents who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valerie Makoge

Valerie Makoge obtained her Ph.D. from Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Her PhD research focused on understanding poverty-related diseases from a salutogenic perspective in Cameroon. She has an MSc in Zoology (Parasitology) from the university of Buea in Cameroon and another MSc in MAKS (Communication and Innovation studies) from Wageningen University. She is a research associate and the head of the Parasitology laboratory at the Medical Research Centre of the Institute for Medical Research and Medicinal Plant studies (IMPM) in Cameroon.

Harro Maat

Harro Maat (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group of Wageningen University, Netherlands. His research focuses on socio-technical change processes in rural communities in the Global South, with a particular interest in changes cross-cutting agriculture, ecology, food and health.

Lenneke Vaandrager

Lenneke Vaandrager (Ph.D.) is associate professor and research coordinator of the Health and Society group of the Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Her main research interests are workplace health promotion and health and the natural environment. Most of her work is inspired by systems thinking and salutogenesis. She is coordinator of the European Training Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion (ETC-PHHP, formed by 10 public health institutions) and member the IUHPE Global Working Group on Salutogenesis (GWGS).

Maria Koelen

Professor Maria Koelen is head of the Health and Society group of the Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Her main research interests relate to health practices of individuals/families/groups and the influence of the social, natural and built environment on lifestyle and health development.