“Don't leave it all to science”: How Mexicans living along the US-Mexico border view health and care seeking

The geographic and cultural distribution of the health beliefs that inform how people interpret disease etiologies, engage in the clinical arena, utilize traditional remedies, and respond to health promotion programming is an important and understudied topic. The impacts of place-based factors on health concepts may be especially critical among geographically displaced populations, who tend to face a similar and concerning host of barriers to medical care access and societal stressors. In this community-based participatory research study, we use qualitative interviews (n=30) among a sample of binationally mobile Mexicans living near the US-Mexico border in southern Arizona to explore how border residence shapes Mexicans’ health and healing world views and care-seeking practices. Findings centered around 1) participants’ binational mobility which reinforced their connections with Mexican healing practices and medical services and provided an escape valve in the face of US-based barriers to care; 2) their integrated mind-body-soul health concepts that grounded them in their ecological and social surroundings; 3) their commitment to taking a primary role in their own healing including localized health challenges and their views on the role of doctors, and 4) barriers to health management tied to labor conditions, border crossing stressors, and perceived ill effects of biomedical care. In conclusion, proximity to the border and binational mobility are shown here to reinforce Mexicans’ cultural health concepts and facilitate their ability to maintain a more active role in their own care-seeking practices and to circumvent some critical US-based barriers to medical services.