Soc Sci Med. 1993 Aug; 37(3): 355-68.

Health care behavior on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast.

Barrett B.

Johns Hopkins University Health and Child Survival Fellow, Instituto de NutriciÃ³n de Centro AmÃ©rica y Panama, Guatemala.

Survey methods are used to investigate health behavior in five communities on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast. Eighteen health behaviors classified as 'biomedical' or 'traditional' are analyzed according to the ethnicity and educational level of the respondent. Household location (urban vs rural) and material wealth are also analyzed as predictors of health care behavior. Traditional behaviors are found to vary considerably among the six ethnic groups and among the various socioeconomic groupings. Biomedical behaviors are not found to be clearly related to ethnicity, wealth, or education.