Beliefs about children's illness

Beliefs about child illness were investigated using semi-structured intervi ews with mothers and providers in four rural Guatemalan communities. The tw o most common forms of child illness in Guatemala - diarrhoea and respirato ry disease - were focused upon. These illnesses are particularly difficult to prevent and treat, especially with the rudimentary health services avail able in rural areas of developing countries. Comparisons with other ethnogr aphic studies in Guatemala suggest that some traditional models of illness causation identified in these earlier investigations are relatively unimpor tant in the communities studied here. This finding, in conjunction with fre quent responses related to hygiene and water, suggests that traditional exp lanations may be co-existing with biomedical views of illness causation to a greater degree today than in the past.