Beliefs about causation and treatment of diseases among adults in a rural area of Pondicherry

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prabal joshi, “Beliefs about causation and treatment of diseases among adults in a rural area of Pondicherry”, ijmhs, vol. 3, no. 6, Dec. 2013.
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Abstract

Background: Majority of the rural people believe that wrath of gods and goddesses, evil eye, spirit or ghost intrusion are supposed to be the cause of diseases. Study was conducted to  understand the beliefs about cause and treatment of some diseases among the adult population of a rural area of Pondicherry.

Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at Manapet, Pondicherry. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview 339 adult individuals.

The questionnaire included three parts socio-demographic characteristics, selected beliefs about concept of causation of diseases and treatment practices. The data collected were analyzed using Microsoft excel software. Simple proportions (%) and chi square test were used.

Results: About causation of disease most common belief was “evil eye can cause disease†(52.2%),while about treatment most common belief was “by holding keys in hands by patient, epileptic attack can be stoppedâ€(78.5%). Beliefs which were significantly more among illiterates were: chicken pox is due to wrath of god/goddess, evil eye as a cause of disease, leprosy and tuberculosis are due to past sins.

Conclusion: Most of the myths were higher among illiterates, with some having significant difference between literates and illiterates.

 

Keywords: belief,disease,leprosy,epilepsy,chickenpox

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“I certify that I have participated sufficiently in the conception and design of this work and the analysis of the data (wherever applicable), as well as the writing of the manuscript, to take public responsibility for it. I believe the manuscript represents valid work. I have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and approve it for publication. Neither has the manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under my authorship been published nor is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in an attachment. Furthermore I attest that I shall produce the data upon which the manuscript is based for examination by the editors or their assignees, if requested.”