Culture Considerations

Cultural Considerations Across the Lifespan and in Health and Illness

Objective Questions

  • Define culture and its expression.
  • Describe the difference between beliefs and values.
  • Identify various beliefs and values in today's adult population.
  • Discuss the relevance of culture and personal values to everyday life and healthy behaviors.
  • Explain the relationship of culture and values to health-promotion teaching.
  • Define complementary and alternative therapies.
  • Discuss the role of the government in promoting culturally competent health care.

Culture

  • A set of learned values, beliefs, customs, and behaviors shared by a common social group.
  • Passed down through generations of family.
  • Can influence food choices, parenting styles, and preferences for treatment measures.

Beliefs

  • Determine how one behaves and responds to daily life and health-care practices.
  • Cultural teachings of practices and values handed down for generations.

Values

  • Deep feelings about what is right or wrong, good or bad.
  • Most personal values are learned in early childhood.
  • Influenced by culture.

Culture and Pregnancy

  • Cultural background of the family may strongly influence family members’ view of the birth experience.
  • Many non-Western cultures expect the woman to have at least 20 to 40 days of bedrest after giving birth.
  • In some cultures, women discard colostrum (first breast milk) and do not eat vegetables during the first week after delivery.
  • In Western culture, the baby is the focus of gift giving following birth, whereas in many non-Western cultures, the mother is the focus of attention.

Culture and the Adolescent

  • Independence in adolescents is not valued equally by all cultures.
  • Understand abstract thinking, and traditional religious practices and symbols can help stabilize the adolescent’s developing identity.
  • Often promote unique changes in styles, thoughts, and practices that can collide with their traditional family values and beliefs.

Culture and the Adult

  • Views of women
  • Marriage
  • Birth control
  • Health care
  • Abortion
  • Menopause

Culture and the Older Adult

  • A positive attitude toward life and health is encouraged for older adults in most cultures.
  • Most cultures look to elders as a source of wisdom.
  • Often play a major role in raising or disciplining grandchildren.

Culture and Health Beliefs

  • Balances between hot and cold
  • Yang (light, heat, or dryness) and yin (darkness, cold, or wetness)
  • Harmony in body, mind, and spirit

Culture and Illness

  • Specific holidays may involve some restriction of activity
  • Declining medications, psychotherapy, blood transfusions or medications containing blood products
  • Illness is the result of sins committed in a previous life or for the atonement of sins in the present life

Culture and Death

  • Self-Determination Act of 1991
  • In most Western cultures, a high value is placed on individual life.
  • In many non-Western cultures, the welfare of the family is primary, and life-and-death decisions are made by group approval.

Culture and Teaching

  • The myriad of cultures creates an opportunity for misunderstandings and misinterpretations of health- care teachings.
  • Questions should be phrased in a neutral fashion.
  • Interpreters should be used when appropriate.

Complementary and Alternative Therapies and Culture

  • Growing desire for control of one's own body and health-care decisions
  • Desire for consideration of family, cultural beliefs, and values
  • Alternative medicine and Complementary medicine

The Government’s Role in Promoting Culturally Competent Care

  • National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
  • United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health and Cross Cultural Health Care
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
  • U.S. Office of Minority Health