Objectives of the study
About 4000-5000 gypsies live in Rome, divided in 50 communities.
The objective of our study is to individuate diseases at higher prevalence in gypsies' communities, in order to improve gypsies' health and to obtain a better access of gypsies to the National Health Care System and to health prevention programs.
Methods
We examined 2,483 gypsies attending at our Department between 1996 and 2002.
They were members of six communities living in Rome.
Results
We observed a high prevalence of oral and dental diseases (50,3%), skin diseases (24,4% scabies, 20,1 % pediculosis, 9,6% tinea capitis, 8,9% tinea corporis), traumatic diseases (10,2%) and gastroenterological diseases (6,2% gastritis and duodenitis, 6,1% liver diseases).
We observed also an increasing trend regarding alcohol and drug abuse by gypsies in Rome (about 300 with oppioid addiction and about 400 with cocaine/crack addiction).
Conclusions
In our opinion there is need to a multidisciplinary approach to gypsies' health, involving anthropological-cultural field, medical field and social field.
It is important to improve the social environment and integration of gypsies and to study gypsies' cultural beliefs on health and disease, in order to overcome difficulties in the understanding of some concepts of Western medicine, like prevention, chronic diseases and long-term treatments.
It is useful also that public health care structures cooperate with private organizations with the inclusion of different health care workers (physicians, psychologists, anthropologists, cultural mediators) encouraging the active participation of gypsies in the management of their health.
References
• Carballo M., Divino J.J., Zeric D. Migration and health in the European Union. Trop Med Int Health 1998;3:936-944
• Wilson M.E. Population movements and emerging diseases. J Travel Med 1997;4:183-186
• Hajioff S., Mc Kee M. The health of the Roma people: a review of the published literature J Epidemiol Community Health 2000 Nov; 54 (11): 864-9
• Cabedo Garcia V.R., Ortells i Ros E., Vaquero Toledo L. and others What are Gypsies like and what do they suffer from? Aten Primaria 2000 Jun 15; (1 ):21-25
