Cross-cultural perspectives on the common cold: Data from five populations

This paper focuses on conceptualizations of the common cold among Latin Americans, as compared with middle-class Americans. Four geographically dispersed groups of Latin Americans were chosen for study: Guatemalans in Guatemala; Mexicans in Guadalajara, Mexico; persons of Mexican descent in Edinburg, Texas (on the Texas-Mexican border); and Puerto Ricans in Hartford, Connecticut. In addition, a comparison group of middle-income Americans living in Tampa, Florida, was also studied to see the extent to which folk concepts were seen in what is considered to be a 'mainstream' population. The data suggest a great deal of both intra- and intercultural agreement as to causes, symptoms, and treatments of the common cold. The cold seems to be viewed as very much in the realm of a biomedical illness, with the exception of ascribing the hot/cold system of causality to the common cold, among all five populations. Finally, the cold is clearly differentiated from 'the flu,' which seems to exist as an illness only among English-speaking populations in the United States.