Assessing the Short-Term Global Health Experience: A Cross-Sectional Study of Demographics, Socioeconomic Factors, and Disease Prevalence

Abstract

Interest in short-term global health experiences to underserviced populations has grown rapidly in the last few decades. However, there remains very little research on what participants can expect to encounter. At the same time, it has been suggested that in order for physicians and workers to provide safe and effective care, volunteers should have a basic understanding of local culture, health systems, epidemiology, and socioeconomic needs of the community before arriving. Our objective was to add to the limited literature on what short-term global health trips can expect to encounter through a cross-sectional study of patient demographics, socioeconomic markers, and the prevalence of diseases encountered on a short-term medical service trip to Lima, Peru. Descriptive analysis was conducted on clinic data collected from patients living in Pamplona Alta and Pamplona Baja, Lima, Peru, in July 2015. We found that volunteers encountered mainly female patients (70.8%), and that there were significant socioeconomic barriers to care including poverty, poor housing, environmental exposures, and lack of continuity of health care. Analysis of the disease prevalence found a high proportion of acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain in the adult populations (18.8% and 11.4%, respectively), and a high presentation of upper respiratory tract infections (25.4%) and parasites (22.0%) in the pediatric group. These findings can be used by future short-term medical service trips to address potential gaps in care including the organization of weekend clinics to allow access to working men, and the use of patient education and nonpharmacological management of acute and chronic disease.

Urban Versus Rural: A Cross-Sectional Study of a Successful Peruvian Global Health Medical Mission

“…In hopes of maximizing care and safety of patients while minimizing cross-cultural misunderstandings, several groups have published recommendations for STMMs. [2,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Lasker et al enumerates themes across several guidelines, including preparation of volunteers, partnership with host organization as well as needs assessment, sustainability, legal and ethical conduct, and continued evaluation. [32] Without including these considerations, STMMs run the risk of wasting resources, or even negatively impacting the healthcare of the local population.…”

“…Existing literature on demographics and disease prevalence in the Chincha Alta (CA) and Sacred Valley (SV) communities in Peru are sparse; most Englishlanguage literature about Peru focus on global health outreach projects or specific infectious diseases. [1][2][3] Without extensive information, it is difficult for short-term medical mission (STMM) teams to provide specific and targeted clinical and public health interventions. The Peruvian government (MINSA) provides limited health care to approximately 60% of the population, 30% are covered by Peruvian employee insurance (ESSALUD), and police and military hospital coverage and private insurance account for the remaining 10%.…”