JOURNAL OF TRANSCULTURAL NURSING / JULY 2002Mendelson / HEALTH PERCEPTIONS OF MEXICAN AMERICANWOMEN Health Perceptions of Mexican American Women

This article describes the health perceptions of a sample of moderately to highly acculturated Mexican American women. Using an ethnographic design, the author inter-viewed 13 women to determine their health perceptions. The interviews were guided by the domains of health described in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health. Three broad categories of health perceptions were identified: the physical body, the emotional component, and finding bal-ance. With the addition of a spiritual component, the WHO definition was a useful tool for uncovering health percep-tions. The process of in-depth ethnographic interviewing pro-vided a contextual view of health in which the complexity of intrafamilial relationships was revealed, as were the impor-tance of spirituality as a coping mechanism and the percep-tion of health as an integrated, holistic experience. In the United States, the Latino population has increased by almost 60 % since 1990. Of the Latino subgroups, those of Mexican descent have experienced the largest growth (U.S