Explain the relationship between culture and health.
Culture can be defined as an integrated pattern of knowledge, behavior and beliefs that
depend on an individual’s capacity for symbolic thought and social thinking which is
passed from generation to generation in the form of attitudes, activities, purposes,
goals and values so as to meet the basic goals or survival, happiness, well-being and to
derive a meaning for living.
Health on the other hand has two definitions. According to the westerners, health is
the absence of disease or infirmities while to most other cultures health is not just
the absence of negative substances but the presence of positive ones as well. In this
sense the west, especially the developed countries has been known to follow a purely
biomedical model of health where a pathogen is treated with the respective medicine
and cured. Lately, however,the field of Complementary and Alternative medicine
which includes things like Homeopathy and herbal medication has started to grow as
have concepts such as hardiness which is mainly the result of the development of
psychology and sociology. Other cultures such as the Chinese follow Buddhism,
Confucianism or Taoism which holds the values of Yin and Yang, perceived by
westerners to be good and bad but in actuality standing for a deeper difference as the
Taoists thought bad and good to be too superficial. Yin which could be for cold,
feminine, moon, water, dark, passive etc., is in contrast with yang which stands for
warmth, male, sun, active, strength etc. According to the Taoists Yin and yang are like
a lit candle.
Yin is the wax and yang in the light. One without the other is useless, which is the
basis of their belief. As is obvious most cultures use metaphors to describe health and
how it should be treated. For example, in one study conducted on Vietnamese
immigrants in Australia it was found that they have a number of metaphors they use
for health. For example
1. Life is a journey
2. Metaphorical leper
3. Doctor as a life creator
4. Sickness is a rough sea
5. Poor health is a metaphor of God’s punishment
In a lot of these cases metaphors tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies (Quynh Le, 2004).
Metaphors have been used in the health field for a very long time, starting at the time
of Hippocrates who propounded that there were 4 types of fluids in our bodies and that
if there was excess of any one it would lead to ill health, for example,
1. Yellow bile- Jaundice
2. Black bile- Hepatitis
3. Blood – Angina
4. Phlegm – Cold, headaches
In the same way the Spanish metaphor of substances in the body being cold or hot
stand in much the same way. However, it was the proposition of the Type A personality
theory in the 1950’s that first gave impetus to Health psychology. According to this
theory people with the Type A personality were always rushed for time, time-conscious,
impatient, business-like and highly competitive. These people were proposed to be
more prone to Coronary heart disease than others. Since the time of its proposition this
theory has been ridiculed for its lack of scientific basis and was even disproved by
Redford Williamson of Duke University who claimed it was only the hostile factors such
as anger and hostility that could be linked to CHD and not the personality itself. Since
then the Type A personality theory has been acknowledged mainly in pop-psychology
and not been given much attention, it however did shed light on the possibility of
psychological factors effecting physiological components of a being. For example,
studies by Adler et al., and Brondolo et al., have found that lower perceived SES has
been linked to worse health as was higher levels of perceived discrimination. This was
proved in Brondolo’s study on African-American women who were placed in3 separate
situations, namely a delayed flight (non-discriminatory), accused of shop- lifting
(Discriminatory) and the tour of a campus (control). It was found that the African
American women experienced higher rates of diastolic blood-pressure than EuropeanAmerican women. In another study by Berkman & Syme, 1979 it was found that social
isolation could also lead to higher mortality rates. In their famous study in Alameda
county, California, it was found that in a sample of 7,000 participants, those with fewer
social ties had a higher rate of mortality. This can be foreseen as a major problem in the
United States as according to one study in 1985 US citizens had at least 3 confidants but
by 2004 that number had reduced to none. It is possible that this lack of communal
welfare would result in a higher mortality rate as people become less and less social.
Other studies on mice have also found that mice that were isolated had 50% less of an
enzyme, 5-alpha reductase type 1 which when in short supply also reduces the level of
the hormone which has been found to explain aggressive behavior, perhaps related to
anxiety in the isolated mice.
Eating disorders have also been found to be on the rise especially in the US where
there are an estimate 5-10 million affected. Bulimia nervosa has been known to be
around since the 19th century with it occurring primarily in affluent cultures around
the world. Anorexia nervosa on the other hand has been a pretty recent
development primarily in the United States where ones SES has been found to be
negatively related to ones weight which is the exact opposite for the rest of the
world. One conspicuos finding in most studies is that the rates of eating dirorders
among African American women are very low in comparison to European American
women. They have been found to show satisfaction with their body weigth and
appearance despite being highly accultured to American culture. Other studies have
found that the more one gets acculturated to American, the smaller one’s waist size
gets. In a study conducted on British Kenyan womena nd Asian-Kenyan women, it
was found that Asian-Kenyan women preferred a heavier body structure thatn British
Kenyans who had acculturated to the british way of thinking. The same was found to
be true in the case of Pakistani women who wereliving in the US (Akan & Grilo. 1995).
On the other extreme obesity among children and adolescents has also been on the
rise with 64% of the US popultaion bring either over-weight or obese and 26% being
obese. One major cause for this is the heavy consumption of fast foods, with one
study finding that sugar-carbonated drinks being directly related to obesity and
children in the US consuming fastfood for at least one meal every day. These factors
combined with the lack of exe4rcise has greatly contributed to the problem in the US.
Suicide too is viewed differently in different cultures of the world, with some believing
suicide in the form of martyrdom to show courage and love for ones country or faith.
This trend which began with the Kamakaze in Japan during WWII has been seen to be
recurring in the eastern world within the realms of the Taliban. Suicide as a means to
protect family fame within Japan was also highly accepted until the 1990’s when light
was shed on a large number of disturbing cases of abuse. Hara Kiri which is a form of
honour killing among the Samuri warriors was also popular and was bveing committed
by business men at the time of recession as a way to regain the fame of their families.
Lovers suicide, mother-child suicide, even whole family suicide was popular and
accepte within Japanese culture until the 1990’s and in some places it still persisits
(Kayoko Ueno, 2004).
Religion has found to playa major role in determining suicide rates. In countries with
religion that strictly prohibit suicide such as Islam, Jewism, and Hinduism the rates of
suicide are much lower. In the same way it has been found that African Americans had
a significantly lower chance of commiting suicide if they were regular church goers than
if they were not. A lot depends on not just your perception of life but also of death.
Many believe that if God is calling, you cannot say no.