The sanitary conditions, the health situation and the association between them were assessed on the Xakriabá population, looking at interventions by the institutions in charge of the Indian health in Brazil. An ecological design was used, adopting as unity of analysis 26 areas, according to the way the biomedical sector is organized in the indigenous land. It was verified that in the period of this study - 2000 to 2002 -, the sanitary Indian conditions had not improved, particularly concerning the children, although the FUNASA had been active in the Xakriabá Indian land. The presence of endemic problems such as parasitosis, high incidence of diarrhoea and skin infectious diseases was very common among these people. Even with limited and sometimes deficient action by the sanitary sector in the Indian land, the results of this study seem to reinforce Briscoe’s hypothesis, that water supply and sanitation conditions are necessary but not sufficient conditions to improve health.
Sanitation; environmental health; diarrhea; Xakriabá; Indian health
