Preliminary Report on Health Status of the Chayanta River Valley, Bolivia
John Daniel Ballew, OMS II; Nathaniel Moore, OMS II; Seth Andrews, OMS II; Adrienne Ables, PharmD
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine–Carolinas Campus, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Background: Despite efforts by the Bolivian Ministry of Health to make health care accessible, more than 30% of the population lacks access to health care. The majority of people who do not have access are indigenous inhabitants of rural areas. Buried deep within the Andes Mountains of Bolivia is a network of impoverished villages known as the Chayanta River Valley. A difficulty in providing health care to this area is a lack of knowledge of common health issues faced by its inhabitants.
Objective: To outline the prevalence of communicable and chronic diseases including, but not limited to, dermatologic conditions, upper respiratory infections, gastrointestinal diseases, and hypertension in the inhabitants of the Chayanta River Valley.
Methods: Patients aged 18 to 100 years receiving care during community clinics were invited to participate in an anonymous survey consisting of a socioeconomic and physical assessment portion. The physical assessment portion was broken into categories with yes/no questions pertaining to specific symptoms. The categories reviewed were as follows: general, head, eyes, ears, nose, throat, neck, respiratory, cardiovascular, skin, musculoskeletal, vascular, breasts, gastrointestinal, urinary, endocrine, genitalia, neurologic, and psychiatric. The physical assessment portion also included height, weight, age, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate. The socioeconomic portion included questions pertaining to diet, occupation, and education. When possible, the survey was administered in Spanish. When individuals spoke only Quechuan (native language), translators were used in survey administration. Surveys were administered in 5 different villages during a 6-day period. Data were entered into an Excel spreadsheet and stratified based on village, gender, and age group. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: One hundred sixty-nine patients (mean [standard deviation] age, 52.65 [20.1] years) completed the survey; 65.9% were female and 32.1% were male. The 5 top complaints were headache (59.28%), general weakness (52.10%), muscle or joint pain (50.30%), back pain (40.72%), and heart-burn (34.73%). These results reflect the total population surveyed. Full data including age and gender stratification will be presented.
Conclusion: The results of this study will be used to help direct the Bolivian Ministry of Health in establishing health care services in the underserved villages of the Chayanta River Valley. The high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints suggests that education on osteopathic manipulative techniques could possibly play an important role in the progress of health care in this region.