Article Title

Building the health capability set in a Purépecha community to assess health interventions

Authors

Marco Ricardo Téllez Cabrera, SEPI-ESE-Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico CityFollow

Abstract

Health capabilities can be viewed as the ability and opportunity to achieve health states according to the different styles of life valued by people. This paper contrasts and explores the dimensions that could be included in the health capability set to assess health interventions in Cuanajo, Mexico, expanding upon a previous work and using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Cuanajo is a semirural indigenous Purépecha community located in western Mexico. While the final objective is to generate measures of outcomes in economic evaluations of health interventions to be carried out in this community, this study reinforces the dimensions that could be employed in the final step. These are: 1) physical, taking into account activities of daily living enabled by different health statuses; 2) mental, in the form of how positive feelings contribute to achieving health functioning; 3) social, considering how a minimal social life takes into account how relations with partners, family members, and friends provide love and support; 4) health agency, incorporating health knowledge and knowledge about how traditional medicine can affect or contribute to achieving health; 5) material conditions, which include housing facilities and monetary resources; and 6) community, how social pressure and security affect health functioning.

Recommended Citation

Cabrera, Marco Ricardo Téllez (2016) "Building the health capability set in a Purépecha community to assess health interventions," Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal: Vol. 8: No. 1, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.61611/2165-4611.1108
Available at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol8/iss1/4