ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2020
Towards an indigenous definition of health: an explorative study to understand the indigenous Ecuadorian people's health and illness concepts.
Article in International journal for equity in health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Experiences of Pain Among Indigenous Peoples Globally: A Qualitative Systematic Review.The International journal of health planning and management · 2026Pooled it
- Lived Experiences and Perceptions of Healthy Lifestyles Among Kichwa Kayambi Indigenous Adults: An Interpretative Qualitative Study in the Community of Pijal.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- From Compassionate Intuition to Clinical Competence: Spiritual Care Among Palliative Care Professionals in Ecuador.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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- A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of the Top 100 Cited Publications on Religious Identity.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Impact of a Contextualized Workplace Intervention in a Latino Population on Reducing Cardiovascular Risk and Its Associated Factors.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Health systems collaboration can strengthen climate change resilience: Insights from Indigenous knowledges in the Latin American region.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Health economics and financing for health systems transformation: lessons from five African epistemological frameworks.The Pan African medical journal · 2026Article
- Measuring health and well-being from preconception to early life in Indigenous populations: a scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Psychometric Evidence of the Pap Smear Test and Cervical Cancer Beliefs Scale (CPC-28) in Aymara Women from Chile.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The meaning of health to persons aging with longstanding multiple sclerosis.Research in nursing & health · 2024Article
- An exploratory study on becoming a traditional spiritual healer among Baganda in Central Uganda.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Perspectives on health, illness, disease and management approaches among Baganda traditional spiritual healers in Central Uganda.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Traditional health practitioners' training needs on biomedical knowledge and skills in a South African township.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2023Article
- Improving the Management of Children with Fevers by Healers in Native Rural Areas in the South of Ecuador.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Culturally adapted flowcharts in obstetric emergencies: a participatory action research study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- A qualitative exploration of perspectives of physical activity and sedentary behaviour among Indian migrants in Melbourne, Australia: how are they defined and what can we learn?BMC public health · 2021Article
- Perceptions of Ecuadorian indigenous healers on their relationship with the formal health care system: barriers and opportunities.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundsAn intercultural society facilitates equitable and respectful interrelations. Knowing and understanding each other's sociocultural and linguitic contexts is a prerequisite for an intercultural society. This study explores the concepts of health and illness among healers of indigenous ethnicities in Southern Ecuador.
methodsA qualitative observational study with eleven focus groups was conducted in three locations in Southern Ecuador; a total of 110 participants the Shuar, Kichwa and Mestizo ethnic groups were included. A phenomenological and hermeneutic analysis was conducted.
resultsFourteen main subtopics around of two predefined themes, i.e., "Health" and "Illness" were identified: 1) four bodies, 2) religiosity, 3) health as a good diet, 4) health as god's blessing or a gift, 5) health as balance/ harmony, 6) health as community and social welfare, 7) health as potentiality or a skill, 8) health as peacefulness, 9) heath as individual will, 10) illness as an imbalance, 11) illness as bad energy, 12) illness as a bad diet, 13) illness as suffering or worry, and 14) illness from God, Nature and People illness. By analysing all the topics' and subtopics' narratives, a health and illness definition was developed. The principal evidence for this new framework is the presence of interculturality as a horizontal axis in health. The indigenous perspective of health and illness focus on a balance between 4 bodies: the physical, spiritual, social and mental bodies. Additionally, "good health" is obtained through of the good diet and balanced/harmony.
conclusionIndigenous healers in Southern Ecuador have views on health and illness that differ from the Western biomedical model of care. These different views must be recognized and valued in order to build an intercultural (health) system that empowers both ancestral and modern medical knowledge and healing.
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