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Use of Curanderismo in a Public Health Care System
Ricardo Padilla, MD;
Veronica Gomez, CMA;
Stacy L. Biggerstaff, MS;
Philip S. Mehler, MD
Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:1336-1340.
Background Curanderismo ("the healing") is a centuries-old
synthesis of Mexican Indian culture and beliefs.
Objective To evaluate the rate of use of curanderismo
among Hispanic subjects seeking medical care at the Denver Health Medical
Center, Denver, Colo.
Methods We conducted a survey of 405 Hispanic subjects attending outpatient
primary and urgent care clinics at Denver Health Medical Center, the public
hospital system for Denver. The main outcome measure was independent predictors
of use of curanderos.
Results Of the 405 subjects, 118 (29.1%) (95% confidence interval, 20.9-37.3)
had been to a curandero at some time in their lives.
Of all the subjects, 91.3% knew what a curandero
was. Univariate analyses demonstrated an association between those who had
been to a curandero and level of income, level of
education, and whether the subject was bilingual. The results of fitting a
stepwise logistic regression model revealed an independent association with
subjects who had been to a curandero and level of
household income (>$20 000 vs <$10 000), with an odds ratio of
2.19 (95% confidence interval, 1.20-4.01) (P = .01),
and level of education (post–high school vs elementary school), with
an odds ratio of 3.16 (95% confidence interval, 1.45-6.86) (P = .004).
Conclusions Many Hispanic patients who receive their health care at a public hospital
system use the services of curanderos. This potentially
has important implications for their health care.
From the Division of General Internal Medicine, Denver Health Medical
Center (Drs Padilla and Mehler and Ms Gomez) and the Colorado Prevention Center
(Ms Biggerstaff), Denver, Colo.
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