Data Cart

Your data extract

0 variables
0 samples
View Cart
FOKSHAMYR
Saw a Shaman, past 12 months
Return to Folk Medicine - General variables list

Codes and Frequencies



Can't find the category you are looking for? Try the Detailed codes

Description

FOKSHAMYR reports whether the person had seen a Shaman in the past 12 months. Please see the Comparability and Universe Tabs for more information on changes to the universe of this variable over time.

Folk medicine was one of many alternative health treatment modalities included in the Complementary and Alternative Health Supplements. Although the 2002 Supplement asked about the use of a generic "practitioner for folk medicine," the later Supplements asked about the use of particular kinds of traditional healers, including curanderos, Native American Healers/Medicine Men, Shamans, sobadors, and Hierberos/Hierbistas or Yerberas/Yerberos. In 2007 and 2012, if sample adults and children gave a positive response to FOKSHAMYR, they were asked a series of follow-up questions about topics such as reasons for using folk medicine and medical conditions for which they used folk medicine. Follow up questions were not asked of sample adults and children giving a positive response to FOKSHAMYR in 2017.

Definitions 

The 2007 and later Field Representative's Manuals say:

Shamans are said to act as mediums between the invisible spiritual world and the physical world. Most gain knowledge through contact with the spiritual world and use the information to perform tasks such as divination, influencing natural events, and healing the sick or injured.

Field representatives were advised to "feel free to offer [this definition] even if the respondent has not requested [it]."

Comparability

Please review the information below before making comparisons across time with this variable.

In 2007, sample adults and sample children were asked if they had seen this specific practitioner of traditional medicine in the past year. In 2012, sample adults and sample children aged four and older were shown a card with specific types of traditional healers and asked if they had ever seen any of these types of healers (FOKEV) and which ones they had seen. Persons who indicated they had seen a specific type of traditional healer(s) were then asked if they had seen that specific type of traditional healer in the past 12 months. In 2017, sample adults and sample children aged four and older and were instead asked whether they had seen a practitioner for traditional medicine "such as a Shaman, curandero, Yerbero, sobador, or Native American Healer" in the past 12 months (FOKYR). Those who indicated that they had were then asked which type of traditional healer(s) they had seen in the past 12 months.

The contents and ordering of the list vary from year to year, but always include Curanderos (expanded to Curanderos, Machis, or Parcheros in 2012), Hierberos/Hierbistas or Yerberos/as, Shamans, Native American Healers/Medicine men, and Sobadors. Please refer to the "Survey Text" tab for the full list of traditional healers in each year. Respondents who indicated that they had ever seen one of the traditional medicine practitioners from the list were then asked if they had seen the practitioner(s) they indicated in the past 12 months for a specific health problem or condition in 2007 and 2012.

Universe

  • 2007: Sample adults age 18+ and sample children under 18.
  • 2012: Sample adults age 18+ and sample children age 4+ who have ever seen a Shaman.
  • 2017: Sample adults age 18+ and sample children age 4+ who saw a traditional healer in the past 12 months.

Availability

  • 2007, 2012, 2017

Weights