IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i9p2512-2532.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of the health status and risk factors of Kham Tibetan pastoralists in the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan plateau

Author

Listed:
  • Foggin, Peter M.
  • Torrance, Marion E.
  • Dorje, Drashi
  • Xuri, Wenzha
  • Marc Foggin, J.
  • Torrance, Jane

Abstract

The health status of Tibetan herders in the Sanjiangyuan region of the Tibetan Plateau, in southwest Qinghai Province, is assessed in this paper. The field study was conducted in 2002 in the context of a broader community development and research framework, the ultimate goal of which is to achieve an effective region-specific programme of preventative health care and training for Tibetan pastoralists. Specifically, the authors analysed the impact of a number of potentially health-related environmental and lifestyle risk factors on self-reported health indicators, with a special emphasis on mother and child health. Several health status indicators were used, including a general morbidity index and a measurement of functional incapacity due to illness in the sample households. Maternal and child health findings were alarming with high rates of miscarriage and infant loss, with no traditional midwives to assist in pregnancy and delivery. Preventable childhood illnesses were also common. Other debilitating diseases included hepatitis, tuberculosis, arthritis (gout), gall bladder disease, peptic ulcers and back pain. Finally, binary logistic regression analysis showed a significant link between general morbidity and the time it takes to obtain water. The survey findings, validated by the focus groups, indicate a real need for increased accessibility and quality of health service provision to women and men and effective preventative health strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Foggin, Peter M. & Torrance, Marion E. & Dorje, Drashi & Xuri, Wenzha & Marc Foggin, J. & Torrance, Jane, 2006. "Assessment of the health status and risk factors of Kham Tibetan pastoralists in the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan plateau," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2512-2532, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:9:p:2512-2532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00303-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ron D. Hays & Cathy Donald Sherbourne & Rebecca M. Mazel, 1993. "The rand 36‐item health survey 1.0," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 2(3), pages 217-227, October.
    2. Oths, Kathryn S., 1998. "Assessing variation in health status in the Andes: a biocultural model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1017-1030, October.
    3. Wiley, Andrea S., 2002. "Increasing use of prenatal care in Ladakh (India): the roles of ecological and cultural factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1089-1102, October.
    4. Curtis, Sarah & Gesler, Wil & Smith, Glenn & Washburn, Sarah, 2000. "Approaches to sampling and case selection in qualitative research: examples in the geography of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(7-8), pages 1001-1014, April.
    5. McCray, Talia M., 2004. "An issue of culture: the effects of daily activities on prenatal care utilization patterns in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(9), pages 1843-1855, November.
    6. Nash Ojanuga, Durrenda & Gilbert, Cathy, 1992. "Women's access to health care in developing countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 613-617, August.
    7. Caldwell, John C., 1993. "Health transition: The cultural, social and behavioural determinants of health in the Third World," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 125-135, January.
    8. Foggin, P.M. & Aurillon, N., 1989. "Respiratory health indicators and acculturation among the Inuit and Cree of Northern Quebec: A regional approach using geographic seriation analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 617-626, January.
    9. Matteson, Donald W. & Burr, Jeffrey A. & Marshall, James R., 1998. "Infant mortality: A multi-level analysis of individual and community risk factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(11), pages 1841-1854, December.
    10. Foggin, Peter & Armijo-Hussein, Nagib & Marigaux, Céline & Zhu, Hui & Liu, Zeyuan, 2001. "Risk factors and child mortality among the Miao in Yunnan, Southwest China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(12), pages 1683-1696, December.
    11. Millard, Ann V., 1994. "A causal model of high rates of child mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 253-268, January.
    12. Spicer, Neil J., 2005. "Sedentarization and children's health: Changing discourses in the northeast Badia of Jordan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2165-2176, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu Dongling & Chen Hui & Ma Ling & Bie Wenqian & Liu Zailiang & Chen Changying, 2017. "Post‐traumatic stress disorder and its predictors among bereaved Tibetan adolescents four years after the Yushu earthquake: a cross‐sectional survey in China," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(7-8), pages 1095-1105, April.
    2. Jonathan Chen & Ellen Chang & Yi-Ren Chen & Meredith Bailey & Samuel So, 2012. "A model program for hepatitis B vaccination and education of schoolchildren in rural China," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(3), pages 581-588, June.
    3. Jiazhou Wang & Yueyue Zhou & Yiming Liang & Zhengkui Liu, 2019. "A Large Sample Survey of Tibetan People on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: Current Situation of Depression and Risk Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Spicer, Neil J., 2005. "Sedentarization and children's health: Changing discourses in the northeast Badia of Jordan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2165-2176, November.
    2. Borooah, Vani K., 2004. "Gender bias among children in India in their diet and immunisation against disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1719-1731, May.
    3. Xiaoyu Fan & Rosya Izyanie Shamshudeen & Mohamad Saleeh Rahamad, 2024. "The Guiding Role of Social Media in the Socialization of Celebrity Fans," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 12(2), pages 50-64, June.
    4. Masood Gheasi & Noriko Ishikawa & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2019. "A meta-analysis of human health differences in urban and rural environments," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 167-186, December.
    5. Augustus Kapungwe, 2005. "Quality of child health care and under-five-mortality in Zambia:," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 12(12), pages 301-322.
    6. Ryan Masters & Robert Hummer & Daniel Powers & Audrey Beck & Shih-Fan Lin & Brian Finch, 2014. "Long-Term Trends in Adult Mortality for U.S. Blacks and Whites: An Examination of Period- and Cohort-Based Changes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2047-2073, December.
    7. Rothstein, Jessica D. & Caulfield, Laura E. & Broaddus-Shea, Elena T. & Muschelli, John & Gilman, Robert H. & Winch, Peter J., 2020. "“The doctor said formula would help me”: Health sector influences on use of infant formula in peri-urban Lima, Peru," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    8. Ackerman, Adam & Porter, Ben & Sullivan, Ryan, 2020. "The effect of combat exposure on veteran homelessness," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    9. Farrukh, Amna & Mathrani, Sanjay & Sajjad, Aymen, 2023. "Green-lean-six sigma practices and supporting factors for transitioning towards circular economy: A natural resource and intellectual capital-based view," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Adnan Fakir & M Khan, 2015. "Determinants of malnutrition among urban slum children in Bangladesh," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Tolhurst, Rachel & Amekudzi, Yaa Peprah & Nyonator, Frank K. & Bertel Squire, S. & Theobald, Sally, 2008. ""He will ask why the child gets sick so often": The gendered dynamics of intra-household bargaining over healthcare for children with fever in the Volta Region of Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 1106-1117, March.
    12. Lauren Gaydosh, 2015. "Childhood Risk of Parental Absence in Tanzania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1121-1146, August.
    13. repec:pri:cepsud:107kling is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Duesberg, Stefanie & Ní Dhubháin, Áine, 2019. "Forest intensification in Ireland: Developing an approximation of social acceptability," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 368-386.
    15. David P. Baker & William C. Smith & Ismael G. Muñoz & Haram Jeon & Tian Fu & Juan Leon & Daniel Salinas & Renata Horvatek, 2017. "The Population Education Transition Curve: Education Gradients Across Population Exposure to New Health Risks," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1873-1895, October.
    16. Mark E. Votruba & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2004. "Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics on the Mortality of Black Male Youth: Evidence From Gautreaux," Working Papers 870, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    17. Christian Raschke, 2019. "Unexpected windfalls, education, and mental health: evidence from lottery winners in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 207-218, January.
    18. Hampshire, Katherine Rebecca & Panter-Brick, Catherine & Kilpatrick, Kate & Casiday, Rachel E., 2009. "Saving lives, preserving livelihoods: Understanding risk, decision-making and child health in a food crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 758-765, February.
    19. Saifuddin Ahmed & Andreea A Creanga & Duff G Gillespie & Amy O Tsui, 2010. "Economic Status, Education and Empowerment: Implications for Maternal Health Service Utilization in Developing Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(6), pages 1-6, June.
    20. Chatzopoulou, Elena & Navazhylava, Kseniya, 2022. "Ethnic brand identity work: Responding to authenticity tensions through celebrity endorsement in brand digital self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 974-987.
    21. Jengher Chen, 2013. "Does Global Fertility and Cultural Transition Affect Human Development? The Neglected Role of the Demographic Transition," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 941-971, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:9:p:2512-2532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.