MEXICAN USE OF LEAD IN THE TREATMENT OF EMPACHO - COMMUNITY, CLINIC, AND LONGITUDINAL PATTERNS

This paper discusses research designed to investigate community, clini c, and longitudinal patterns in use of lead as a treatment for empacho , a folk illness manifest by gastrointestinal symptoms. The same quest ionnaire used in a clinic-based study seven years previously in Guadal ajara, Mexico, was used to interview a randomly selected community sam ple; in addition, the study was repeated at the same clinic sites that had been studied previously. The goals were to investigate: (1) What are community wide prevalences of empacho and use of lead based remedi es? (2) To what extent are current patterns of use of lead for treatme nt of empacho in clinic-based samples similar to those seven years ago . The attributable risk to the population as a whole from use of lead based remedies was found to be 11% of the households of Guadalajara. E ssentially this same estimate was seen for the 1987 and 1994 clinic po pulations. Interestingly, while percentages of lead users have decline d since 1987, twice as great a percentage of informants reported treat ing empacho. Other patterns originally identified in 1987 persisted in 1994; lead use continues to be associated with lower levels of parent al education and income. (C) 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.