A description of child illness and treatment behavior in Guatemala

This paper uses a new calendar design implemented in the Guatemalan Survey of Family Health to analyze diarrheal and respiratory illness among childre n. The calendar provides a much richer description of child illness and tre atment behavior than do conventional data typically collected in health int erview surveys. The resulting estimates reveal that Guatemalan children exp erience high rates of diarrheal and respiratory illness and that these illn esses often involve multiple symptoms that only partially overlap one anoth er. In addition, estimates from the calendar demonstrate that the measureme nt of illness frequency is fairly complex and that classification of illnes s into distinct categories may not always be feasible or meaningful. Result s regarding treatment behavior indicate that the vast majority of illnesses are treated and that mothers almost always receive advice regarding their children's illnesses from relatives. On the other hand, health providers ar e sought for advice and treatment in only about one-third of illnesses. Whe n families do seek providers, they are more likely to rely on biomedical on es - especially pharmacists, doctors and personnel at health posts and cent ers - than traditional practitioners. By far, the most common form of treat ment - recommended by both relatives and providers - consists of readily av ailable Western medicines. In contrast, the use of traditional remedies app ears to be relatively low. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.