'I can die today, I can die tomorrow': lay perceptions of sickle cell disease in Kumasi, Ghana at a point of transition.
ETHNICITY & HEALTH 2011;
16:465-81. [PMID:
21797730 PMCID:
PMC3330918 DOI:
10.1080/13557858.2010.531249]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2010] [Revised: 10/08/2010] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To describe the lay meanings of sickle cell disease (SCD) in the Ashanti region of Ghana.
DESIGN
Depth interviews with 31 fathers of people with SCD; a focus group with health professionals associated with the newborn sickle cell screening programme, and a focus group with mothers of children with SCD.
RESULTS
Whilst there are discourses that associate sickle cell with early or recurrent death, with supernatural undermining of family well-being, and with economic challenges in purchasing medical care, other discourses that value children and other family practices that resist stigma are also in evidence.
CONCLUSION
Lay perspectives on SCD are constructed in the contexts of enduring culture (the high value placed on children); changing culture (medicine and research as available alternative discourses to supernatural ones); altered material circumstances (newborn screening producing cohorts of children with SCD); changing political situations (insurance-based treatment); enhanced family resources (the experience of a cohort of young people with SCD). Above all the praxis of successfully caring for a child with SCD, and the political experience of sharing that praxis, stands in opposition to discourses of death and helps parents resist stigma and despair.
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