Infantile Malnutrition in Mbyá-Guarani indigenous population: ethnoepidemiological study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to know the infantile malnutrition prevalence in children from zero to five years old, as well as the associated ethnographical aspects in an indigenous population Mbyá-Guarani in the south of Brazil. To reach this complex phenomenon the integration of several methods was used: semi-structured interviews with children’s mothers suffering from malnutrition and with the healers, participant observation, social demographic survey, alimentary 24-hour survey and antropometric measurement, through the triangulation process. The nutritional deficit was verified in macronutrients and micronutrients as well as the existence of 38% of malnutrition for height/age index and 7,6% for height/weight index. Despite the data found on malnutrition, this population does not recognize its existence, but the presence of a Guarani disease called “kamby riru jere”. So, the therapeutic carried out by the white people is replaced by xamânicos treatments. This study emphasized the importance of the performed interventions in these people seeking the united construction of health practices which respect the indigenous culture, attaining thus greater effectiveness.