Volume 24, Issue 6: December, 1997

Abstract

THE MEANING OF RTI IN VIETNAM, A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ILLNESS REPRESENTATION: COLLABORATION OR SELF REGULATION?

Pamina M. Gorbach, DrPH
Dao T. Khanh Hoa, MS
Eugenia Eng, PhD
Amy Tsui, PhD

Address for correspondence and reprints: Dr. Pamina M. Gorbach, Center for AIDs and STDs, The University of Washington, 1001 Broadway Street, Suite 215, Seattle, WA 98122-4304; e-mail: pamina@u.washington.edu.

In collaboration with the National Committee for Population and Family Planning, a study was conducted in a rural and urban commune of northern Vietnam to provide community level information on women's reproductive health and behaviors. Ethnographic and structured interviews were conducted with 32 women. A psychosocial model of health behavior, The Dual Process Model, was applied to provide a theoretical framework for understanding women's interpretations of and strategies for coping with symptoms of reproductive tract infections (RTIs). Women were found to interpret and manage RTI symptoms collaboratively with other women. Therefore, women's approach to care seeking was influenced heavily by their peer network and not driven by their method of family planning.