Abstract
Anemia is a common health problem among women throughout the world, however, there has been minimal research on women's concepts of anemia. The purpose of this study was to examine concepts of anemia in low income Nicaraguan women. A qualitative design was used. Audio-taped open-ended interviews in Spanish with 14 women were used to obtain data. Tapes were transcribed and content analyzed. The findings indicate that few of the women had biomedically accurate concepts of anemia, such as that it was due to lack of iron from poor eating. Others held folk medical beliefs including home remedies, for example drinking the milk of a mare or beet juice and eating certain foods such as bean soup. Most of the women did not know any symptoms of anemia and a few reported that it can develop into leukemia. These concepts of anemia are instructive for nurses working with patients from Nicaragua and will be useful in developing nursing interventions to alleviate this public health problem.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO)estimates that anemia affects over 2 billion people worldwide[1]
We describe the concepts of anemia from the emic perspective in low income women in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua
When the women were asked about how anemia develops, they responded with the themes of poor eating and lack of vitamins
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO)estimates that anemia affects over 2 billion people worldwide[1]. Regarding dietary causes of anemia, the most common kind of anemia includes iron deficiency anemia, deficiencies of folic acid, B12, and Vitamin C can lead to low levels of hemoglobin[2]. These data reflect anemia as measured by hemoglobin status, of which the WHO estimates that 50% are caused by iron deficiency anemia (hereafter referred to as anemia). The authors found that the women did not know the term anemia they were aware of the symptoms. In the Latin American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and Bolivia, women knew that anemia could have serious outcomes for the mother and baby. Beliefs about taking iron included fears that the iron “may cause too much blood or a big baby” or spots on the baby’s face or other harm to the baby[4]
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