Peasant strategies for economic reproduction and malaria epidemiology in the ravines microregion of the Chiapas mountains, Mexico: a case study

Abstract

The goal of this investigation was to establish an initial correlation between farming activities and malaria and to define risk factors and prevalence of the latter through an analysis of the integration of farm production strategies by members of an indigenous peasant community in the Chiapas mountains in Mexico. Information was obtained on places of work, land use, coffee, corn, and bean farming, and number of family members involved in farming activities, wage labor, and handicrafts production. Migration of farm workers to warmer climates was also analyzed. The study compared families with and without cases of malaria from 1987 to 1993 in the town of Yibeljoj, Chenalhó county. The most outstanding characteristics of this analysis were the following: strategies involving greater risk and prevalence of malaria were those which combined corn farming and wage labor; on the other hand, strategies in which handicraft production was the activity of primary or secundary importance were associated with few or no cases of the disease.