Abstract
This article is based on 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Cairo, Egypt during the years of 2015 and 2017 as part of a research project on the topic of type-2 diabetes. The article examines different understandings of the onset and treatment of type-2 diabetes across people in Cairo living with the condition and their healthcare providers. The article argues that those who are diagnosed with type-2 diabetes primarily relate their condition to experiences of ḍaghṭ (stress or pressure), above any other risk factors. This understanding clashes with healthcare providers who instead link type-2 diabetes primarily to obesity. The article exemplifies these different understandings of type-2 diabetes by drawing on the topic of food specifically, showing how the intake of food is not perceived by those diagnosed with type-2 diabetes as related to their condition in similar ways as is the case among their healthcare providers. As opposed to relating type-2 diabetes to matters of abundance and an excess consumption of food and calories, those in Cairo who are diagnosed with type-2 diabetes instead relate their condition to matters of deprivation and scarcity—as well as the experiences of ḍaghṭ brought on by such potential deprivation and scarcity.
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Notes
Diabetes is an umbrella term for multiple conditions with the common outcome of an elevated level of blood sugar.
Hosni Mubarak was the president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. He was ousted in February 2011 during the Arab Spring.
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Acknowledgements
This research was made possible by a PhD fellowship from the Faculty of Arts at Aarhus University. I would like to thank all individuals who helped make this research possible both in and out of Egypt. In addition I wish to thank the reviewers for valuable comments in the process of writing this piece.
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This study was funded by the Faculty of Arts at Aarhus University.
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All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Aarhus University (April 2015) as well as by official authorities at the CAPMAS Office in Cairo, Egypt (June 2015/April 2017).
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Thorsen, M.K. Under Pressure: Living with Diabetes in Cairo. Cult Med Psychiatry 47, 114–131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-021-09754-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-021-09754-1