Social Determinants of Health

Culture and Health

Cultural influences have become more prominent in contemporary theories explaining the factors that determine health and quality of life. Historically, theories applied in health promotion have focused on individual determinants of health. More recently, this focus has expanded to social and cultural influences. It is clear from the experience accumulated over the past two decades that to address health problems effectively, we must examine cultural factors and understand beliefs about health within a context that is relevant to the population of interest.

Although the role of culture has long been acknowledged in widely used theories, of late, culture has not been a central focus. Since no model or learning theory can explain or predict all aspects of health behaviors, from cultural and developmental perspectives, combining compatible theories and models can create stronger heath education programs for diverse groups and throughout life spans (Campbell & Sherman, 1999).

The Influence of Culture on Health

Here are some examples of how religion, culture, and ethnic customs can influence how your patients interact with you:

Review each tab to know more.

• Health beliefs
• Health customs
• Ethnic customs
• Religious beliefs
• Dietary customs
• Interpersonal customs

People in some cultures believe that talking about a possible poor health outcome will cause that outcome to occur.

Family members play a large role in health-care decision making.

Men and women’s differing roles in society may determine who makes decisions about accepting and following through with medical treatments.

People may be affected by their religious faith and spiritual beliefs in their health-care-seeking behavior and their willingness to accept specific treatments or behavior changes.

Patients may have difficulty in following disease-related dietary advice if it does not conform to the foods or cooking methods used by them.

People may find eye contact or physical touch inappropriate or offensive in some cultures.

Reference:

Campbell, M. K., & Sherman, S. G. (1999). Nutrition behavior: Implementing change in communities. In A. L. Owen, P. L. Splett, & G. M. Owen (Eds.), Nutrition in the community: The art and science of delivering services (pp. 172–195). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Additional Materials

From your course textbook Health Disparities in the United States: Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Health, review the following chapters:

• Understanding How Low Social Status Leads to poor Health
• Race, Ethnicity, and Health
• Race/Ethnicity, Socio Economic Status, and Health: Which Is More Important in Affecting Health Status?

From your course textbook Health Promotion in Multicultural Populations: A Handbook for Practitioners and Students, review the following chapters:

• Models, Theories, and Principles of Health Promotion and Their Use With Multicultural Populations
• Health Disparities in Multicultural Populations: An Overview

From the Internet, review the following:

• Building a Culture of Health opens in new window
• Rural Health Information Hub opens in new window
• The Social Determinants of Health: Coming of Age opens in new window
• Poverty: 2014 and 2015 (American Community Survey Briefs) opens in new window