This September, three Oxford University students will travel to Lake Atitlan to research the health and nutrition of indigenous Guatemalans.
The specific objectives of this project will be to assess—through interviews and questionnaires—the practices, preferences, and perceptions for diet and exercise amongst rural indigenous Guatemalans. Assessments will be carried out in the villages surrounding Lake Atitlan in Southwestern Guatemala amongst the Kaqchiquel Amerindians. In addition to collecting data, the expedition team will interact with the community on two key levels: the team will facilitate community workshops focusing on nutrition, and they will exchange skills with local Guatemalan students. The team will teach student workshops on qualitative and quantitative data analysis and the students will share their knowledge of the local languages. The long-term goal of this project is to increase appropriate preventative health interventions for indigenous Guatemalans.
The immediate goal of this project is to assess indigenous Guatemalan lifestyle preferences, perceptions and practices with regard to diet and exercise. Ten years after a 36-year internal conflict, health disparities for indigenous Guatemalans remain among the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly seventy-percent of the indigenous population suffers from malnutrition. This population displays the worst values in the world, on indicators for stunting, as well as the highest levels of infant and under-5 mortality in Latin America. Due to the epidemiologic transition in Guatemala, chronic diseases are becoming prevalent and creating a double disease burden for indigenous Guatemalans.
