CGPH FACULTY: John Colford
DATE OF PUBLICATION: December 2011
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Pacheco GD, Christen A, Arnold B, Hattendorf J, Colford JM Jr, Smith TA, Mäusezahl D. Reporting diarrhoea through a vernacular term in Quechua-speaking settings of rural Bolivia. J Health Popul Nutr. 2011 Dec;29(6):552-9.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Field studies often use caregiver-reported diarrhoea and related symptoms to measure child morbidity. There are various vernacular terms to define diarrhoea that vary across the local cultural contexts. The relationship between vernacular definitions of diarrhoea and symptoms-based definitions is not well-documented.An average specificity of at least 97% and the sensitivity of at least 50% were obtained. The findings suggest that the use of k’echalera would identify fewer cases of diarrhoea than a symptom-based definition in rural Bolivia.
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