Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity: Understanding People, Reducing Disparities

With diversity, including cultural diversity, increasingly become the norm, it has become even more essential for students and those planning to work in public health to have more than a cursory understanding of the important cultural dimension of the human societies and groups with whom they'll be partners. Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity: Understanding People, Reducing Disparities examines what is meant by culture and the ways which culture intersects with health issues, and explores how public health efforts can benefit by understanding and working with cultural processes. Using a range of conceptual tools and research methods, this text provides an overview of specific domains where culture and health intersect, including: varying definitions of health/well-being; understandings of health risk; illness causation and treatment theories (ethnomedical systems); healing/curing traditions; the relationship between health risk (vulnerability) and socio-cultural structures; gender and health; and the meaning of 'cultural competency.' The Second Edition provides: - A brief review of a range of cases and examples that span several health issues where health problems, as well as health interventions, were impacted by cultural factors. - An overview of research methods that focus on obtaining “cultural data.” - A focus on four current public health issues where culture and health intersect: HIV/AIDS, obesity, youth violence, and the COVID-19 epidemic. - An exploration of the ways in which an awareness of the culture-health relationship can inform public health work, both domestic and international. - Real-life examples and profiles as well as suggested exercises and activities help readers in understanding concepts and their application - Two in-depth case studies on autism spectrum disorder and indigenous historical trauma illustrate the broad scope interactions between culture and health.