Healthcare Choices and Acute Respiratory Infection: A Rural Ecuadorian Case Study

Abstract

The objectives of this research are to identify barriers for timely healthcare seeking for childhood acute respiratory infections (ARIs), and to compare the ethnomedical signs and symptoms female caregivers ascribe to lower ARIs in under-fives with Western biomedical categories. In 2004, six focus group discussions with female caregivers and 25 in-depth interviews with healthcare providers were conducted. In addition, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to a purposive sample of 91 female caregivers (age 18-57 years) in a rural Ecuadorian county. Results from the questionnaires found that the majority of caregivers (54%) did not recognize the most severe ARI symptoms, rapid breathing and indrawn chest. Analysis of the data identified the primary obstacles for timely healthcare seeking were money for medicines (32%), transportation fares (21%), and restrictive hours of the health centers (14%). Healthcare choices included a combination of home-based care, use of traditional healers, and biomedi...