The epidemiology of spirit possession in the aftermath of mass political violence in Mozambique.
Social science & medicine (1982) August 1, 2010 Victor Igreja, Beatrice Dias-Lambranca, Douglas A Hershey et al. 52 citations
In post-civil war Mozambique (2003-2004), a study of 941 adults assessed harmful spirit possession. Prevalence varied by severity: 18.6% of participants suffered from at least one harmful spirit, and 5.6% of those had two or more. Possessed individuals experienced greater health impairment compared to non-possessed individuals. The study used a combined quantitative-qualitative design and suggests that understanding local beliefs about spirit possession and its community prevalence is essential for designing culturally sensitive public health interventions.