Abstrakt
We read with interest the article "Why don't segregated Roma do more for their health? An explanatory framework from an ethnographic study in Slovakia" that has been published recently in this journal (Belak et al. 2018). The authors performed a qualitative content analysis of combined ethnography and systematic interview conducted in a Roma settlement of 260 inhabitants in Slovakia during a period of 10 years.
They posited an original interlocking system of seven mechanisms which support the non-adherence of local Roma to clinical and public health recommendations. These mechanisms are controlled by and operated through both local Roma and non-Roma.
We are approaching this subject from the perspective of practical medicine (Nunes et al. 2018), caring for patients with diabetes mellitus. The question of whether patients adhere to the recommendations in terms of lifestyle changes is an essential aspect of the whole treatment process, and in our experience, there is a widespread tendency not to strictly follow recommendations, irrespective of a patient's nationality or ethnicity.
In our experience, the most common reason stated by patients for this is limited time available to devote to personal health care; conversely, a lack of interest in their own health is rarely given as the main reason.