PMID: 9541073Apr 16, 1998Paper

An ethnographic study of night blindness "ratauni" among women in the Terai of Nepal

Social Science & Medicine
P ChristianK P West

Abstract

Night blindness is the most common ocular condition representing moderate-to-severe vitamin A deficiency in children. Very little, however, is known about maternal night blindness, which has recently been reported to occur frequently during pregnancy in parts of south-east Asia. In Nepal, the prevalence of night blindness is reported to be 16%. We carried out an ethnographic study of night blindness during pregnancy in the south-eastern, rural plains of Nepal as preliminary research for a case-control study of the determinants of this condition. The purpose of the research was to identify local terms and concepts of night blindness and to examine women's perceptions of its causes, symptoms, severity, and consequences during pregnancy. Data collection involved in-depth interviews, case studies, unstructured observations and structured anthropologic methods, such as free listing and quick sort ranking. Women considered night blindness to be an important illness of pregnancy, ranking it second (to vaginal bleeding) in perceived severity from a list of 15 "women's illnesses". Local terms for night blindness were identified in three different languages from the region. Informants described a complex ethnomedical model of night blind...Continue Reading

References

Sep 1, 1991·Asia-Oceania Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology·J P JayasekeraH R Seneviratne
Jan 1, 1985·American Journal of Epidemiology·M P UpadhyayB P Nepal
Apr 1, 1980·The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition·A SommerJ S Saroso
Aug 1, 1995·The Journal of Nutrition·J KatzA Sommer
Aug 1, 1994·Social Science & Medicine·M BakshA A Jansen
Feb 1, 1994·The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition·B A Underwood
Jun 1, 1989·Human Ecology·C Panter-brick

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Citations

Oct 9, 2007·Quality of Life Research : an International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation·Eva BrobergerMirjam A G Sprangers
Jan 1, 2004·Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine·Kazuko HiraiMathura P Shrestha
Feb 24, 2009·Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability·Yueh-Ching ChouCheng-Yun Pu
May 14, 2009·Ophthalmic Epidemiology·Joanne KatzLakshmi Rahmathullah

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