"An Ugly Paradise": Examining the Effect of Puerto Rico's Political Status on Diabetes, Depression, and Obesity in Puerto Rico

• In Event: Applying Anthropology to Latin American Healthscapes

Abstract

Diabetes, depression, and obesity are synergistically linked, and are highly prevalent in Puerto Rico. Structural factors in Puerto Rico, such as poverty, crime, political ineffectualness, abuse, and alcoholism, partly explain the ubiquity of these illnesses on the island. However, there is little research on Puerto Rico’s status as a United States Commonwealth as a contributor to the prevalence of these three illnesses. Based on extensive interviews and neighborhood mapping, I use a syndemic approach to argue that Puerto Rico’s status as a Commonwealth, combined with the aforementioned structural factors, underlies the pervasiveness of diabetes, depression, and obesity in Puerto Rico.

Author

• Shir Lerman, University of Connecticut