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CultureandHealth Nupe NigerJMed Oleribe

This document discusses how certain cultural practices of the Nupe people in Nigeria can positively or negatively impact their health, such as practices like "Tamako" which provides community assistance to the sick having positive effects, while practices like child marriage and body scarification have negative health impacts. The conclusion calls for discouraging detrimental cultural practices while encouraging and integrating those with positive health effects into community-based programs.

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Idris Aji Dauda
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74 views2 pages

CultureandHealth Nupe NigerJMed Oleribe

This document discusses how certain cultural practices of the Nupe people in Nigeria can positively or negatively impact their health, such as practices like "Tamako" which provides community assistance to the sick having positive effects, while practices like child marriage and body scarification have negative health impacts. The conclusion calls for discouraging detrimental cultural practices while encouraging and integrating those with positive health effects into community-based programs.

Uploaded by

Idris Aji Dauda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/6685603

Culture and health: the effect of Nupe cultural practice on the health of Nupe
people

Article  in  Nigerian journal of medicine: journal of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria · January 2007
DOI: 10.4314/njm.v15i3.37241 · Source: PubMed

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2 authors:

Obinna Oleribe Datonye Alasia


Excellence & Friends Management Care Centre (EFMC) University of Port Harcourt
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Niger J Med. 2006 Jul-Sep;15(3):325-8.

Culture and health: the effect of Nupe


cultural practice on the health of Nupe
people.
Oleribe EO, Alasia DD.

Department of Community Medicine, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, Enugu


State, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: The Cultural practices of communities are known to influence the Health
status of the community both positively and negatively. To achieve set out health goals positive
cultural practices should be enhanced and incorporated into community based health
programmes. This commentary aims to highlight the positive and negative effects of cultural
practices on health using the Nupes a tribe in North central Nigeria as a reference point.
METHOD: Information on the cultural practice of Nupe people and the related health effects
were obtained through observation, group discussion and interviews among Katcha people, a
Nupe community in Nigerstate of Nigeria. Literature of the effects of cultural practices on health
was reviewed using MEDLINE and manual library search. RESULTS: Cultural practices with
positive health effects such a "Tamako" a system of community based assistance to the sick was
found among the Nupes in Katcha. This system is useful in defraying hospital bills of indigent
members of the community. Another positive practice is the culture of food assistance and gifts
to nursing mothers which helps to improve their nutritional status. However Negative cultural
practices such as child marriage, "Sadakiar" (wife gifts), "Egikpa" (child fostering) and "Efidan"
(body scarifications) are also practiced. CONCLUSION: Cultural practices have significant
effects on health. Most of these effects are detrimental and should be discouraged. Cultural
practices with positive effects should be encouraged and integrated into community based health
policies and programmes in order to enhance the attainment of the millennium development
goals especially in rural communities of the developing world.

PMID: 17111771 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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