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Community Health Assessment of a “Repopulated” Village in El Salvador
Author(s) -
Meyers Alan,
Epstein Adrienne,
Burford Doris,
Colorado Maytte,
Zadel Janis L.,
DeVoney Anthony,
Brunt Melanie
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
medical anthropology quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.855
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1548-1387
pISSN - 0745-5194
DOI - 10.1525/maq.1989.3.3.02a00050
Subject(s) - malnutrition , environmental health , medicine , sanitation , respondent , mortality rate , demography , child mortality , geography , gerontology , population , surgery , pathology , sociology , political science , law
A community health assessment was carried out in San Jose las Flores, a village in rural northern El Salvador “repopulated” entirely by former refugees who returned to their area of origin in June 1986. In a survey of randomly selected households, knowledge of hygienic practices was documented among mothers, despite low levels of literacy and education. A campaign stressing sanitation and health education, conducted by village health promoters, and the use of oral rehydration therapy were associated by the health promoters with a decline in diarrheal mortality in children. Anthropometric measurement of children under five, however, showed an increase in acute undernutrition compared to survey data reported from the region in 1978. Respondents reported a high rate of total child mortality (255 of 1,000 live births), with cause of death attributed to actions of the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES) in 43% of cases. War‐related mortality of family members was also high (a mean of 7.1 per respondent), again with the leading cause of death (91 %) reported to be actions of the FAES.