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Normalizing diabetes in Delhi: a qualitative study of health and health care.
- Source :
- Anthropology & Medicine; Dec2016, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p295-310, 16p
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- The Type 2 diabetes epidemic in India poses challenges to the health system. Yet little is known about how urban Indians view treatment and self-care. Such views are important within the pluralistic healthcare landscape of India, bringing together allopathic and non-allopathic (or traditional) paradigms and practices. We used in-depth qualitative interviews to examine how people living with diabetes in India selectively engage with allopathic and non-allopathic Indian care paradigms. We propose a ‘discourse marketplace’ model that demonstrates competing ways in which people frame diabetes care-seeking in India's medical pluralism, which includes allopathic and traditional systems of care. Four major domains emerged from grounded theory analysis: (1) normalization of diabetes in social interactions; (2) stigma; (3) stress; and (4) decision-making with regard to diabetes treatment. We found that participants selectively engaged with aspects of allopathic and non-allopathic Indian illness paradigms to build personalized illness meanings and care plans that served psychological, physical, and social needs. Participants constructed illness narratives that emphasized the social-communal experience of diabetes and, as a result, reported less stigma and stress due to diabetes. These data suggest that the pro-social construction of diabetes in India is both helpful and harmful for patients – it provides psychological comfort, but also lessens the impetus for prevention and self-care. Clarifying the social constructions of diabetes and chronic disease in India and other medically pluralistic contexts is a crucial first step to designing locally situated treatment schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13648470
- Volume :
- 23
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Anthropology & Medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 120211635
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2016.1184010