Yoruba Disease Classifications for Planning in Health Care

Abstract

An understanding of local concepts of illness and disease that underlie disease classification systems is essential for designing culturally relevant training programs in primary health care. Prior to training personnel in primary health care in Idere, Nigeria, residents were interviewed revealing that two main groups of disease exist. Generally, arun is serious, chronic and contagious, while aisan represents temporary indispositions. When given seventeen conditions to classify, respondents clearly demarked five as arun and five as aisan while the remainder fell in a grey area in between. Ironically, malaria which is a dangerous disease to young children, was classified as aisan. The disease classification system is being used as a general point of departure for discussion during training. Concerning training on the specific diseases, appropriate ideas are reinforced while others are modified all within the context of the local classification system.