Culture and Health

Health Psychology

Study of psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill

Health behaviors

Behaviors undertaken by people to enhance or mantain their health
(ex. balanced diet, exercise)

what are the 2 models for Prediciting health outcomes

common sense model of self regulation (“the common sense model”)
health belief model

Cognitive Illness Representations (Common Health Model)

Cognitive representative of an illness/disease

thoughts about what they’re experiencing “I may be having a migraine from lack of sleep.”

Emotional Illness Representations (Common Health Model)

Emotional response that may work with or against with the perception of illness

ex) person experiencing headache; they may feel anxious about it

Coping Strategies (Common Health Model)

Strategies to cope with health issues: avoidance, denial, problem focused coping, etc.

Illness Outcomes (common health model)

outcome of an illness

Perceived susceptibility (The original Health Belief Model)

your personal belief about the likelihood of getting a disease/condition

• ex) if you believer there’s a higher chance of you getting cancer, you have high susceptibility to lung cancer, and it could lead you to precisely going to doctors for testing

Perceived severity (the original health belief model)

your personal belief about how serious the disease would be if you did get it

you understand the severity of the disease which could affect your health outcome

Perceived benefits (the original health belief model)

how strongly do you believe that going to a actor will reduce your case of developing an illness

Perceived barriers (the original health belief model)

barriers that prevent you from engaging in certain health behaviors

• ex) you may think your providers don’t understand you or be less empathetic and these reasons may prevent you from seeking help even if you need to

Cues to Action ( the original health belief model)

external or internal cues/reminders that influence your health behaviors

Ex) a doctor telling you advice, a friend getting sick, seeing a billboard for a health clinic

(Addition of) Self Efficacy to the Health Belief Model; what does self efficacy mean?

self efficacy refers to an individual’s perception of their competence to successfully perform a behavior

Health disparities

preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by social disadvantaged problems

unfair, preventable gaps in health that are experienced by social disadvantaged problems

Ndugga et al 2024 found what about black american infants?

black american infants are more likely to die than white american infants and asian babies

Ndugga et al. 2024 found what about diabetes mortality?

death rates per 100,000 people highest among native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, american Indians and Alaska natives, and black americans COMPARED TO white americans

Ndugga et al 2024 found out what about life expectancy?

black americans and American Indians and Alaska natives had shorter life expectancies than white americans

ndugga et al 2024: diabetes mortality highest among…?

highest among native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders

Social Determinants of Health

Conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age

that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks

5 social determinants of health

• economic stability

• education access & quality

• health-care access & quality

• neighborhood and built environment

• social and community context (structures to support inclusion of people)

*lets focus on health care access and quality

Which group had to delay or forgo medical care the MOST and why?

21% of latin americans in the study had to delay or forgo medical care because of costs

Highest and lowest group with access to non-emergency care provider

European americans were the highest with 86% having access to non emergency care provider

latin americans were lowest with 74% having access to non emergency care provider

ethnic gloss

label used to identify cultural groups that have great within group heterogeneity

• ex) asian americans can include East Asians, south asians, etc.

wha

what s the problem with ethnic gloss

often all the groups are grouped into one and it’s problematic because there are big variabilities among those groups.

• ex) filipino more likely to have chronic health issues; East Asians dont have as much of these issues

causes of health disparities

racism and differential treatment, poverty, access to health care system, structure barriers, mistrust

Williams and Mohammed 2009 found what?

research suggests health disparities continue to exist among people of color even when controlling for age, education, income, and even health behaviors

schulman et al 1999 found what?

schulman et al 1999 found that European American physicians more likely to misdiagnose symptoms of heart attack in African American patients at a higher rate than in European American patients with identical symptoms

Racism in nursing homes (USDHHS 2003)

use of physical restraints in nursing homes higher among latin americans and asian/pacfic islanders than european americans

Who are more likely to report receiving lower level of care? (Roach 2003)

African americans and latin americans 3x more likely than European americans to report receiving lower level of care

Cain and Kingston (2003) said what about racism

Perceived experienced BIAS—> negative/emotional stress response —> poor health outcomes (hypertension, poor mental health, cardiovascular disease)

the more you think you experience bias, the greater your negative/stress response is, which contributes to poor health

Allostatic Load:

physiological cost of chronic stress (ex. high blood pressure, increased heart rate, elevated blood sugar, and cortisol levels)