CLASSIFICATORY BIAS OF ICD IN INDIGENOUS HEALTH INFORMATION

VIÉS CLASSIFICATÓRIO DA CID NA SAÚDE INDÍGENA

Abstract

Indigenous health information systems in Brazil encode data using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which does not encompass the cosmological, territorial, spiritual, and collective dimensions that structure the health–illness–healing processes of Indigenous peoples. This study analyzes the limitations and classificatory biases of the ICD in representing Indigenous health, with a focus on the chapters concerning factors influencing health status and mental and behavioral disorders. The research is qualitative, bibliographic, and exploratory, combining a review of the fields of Information Science, Knowledge Organization, Indigenous Health, and Decolonial Studies, document analysis, and conceptual mapping between ICD categories and dimensions found in the literature. The results indicate a lack of adequate correspondence in certain categories, producing informational erasure and semantic losses that compromise the epidemiological visibility of Indigenous populations. It is concluded that overcoming these limitations requires a decolonial shift that recognizes the epistemic plurality of the peoples these systems are intended to represent.