Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Research Paper
For this assignment, you are to select a target population with a specific health issue and research how social, cultural, and behavior factors of the target population contribute to health outcomes associated with the health issue. The 1,200-1,500 word Research Paper must including the following:Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Introduction: Provide a concise synopsis of the purpose of the paper and a general introduction to the target population and the health issue.
Target Population: Provide a description about the target population that you have selected; provide demographic information about the population; and discuss relevant social, cultural, and behavior factors that affect this population.
Health Issue: Provide information discussing the health issue that you have selected; include a history of knowledge and public health understanding regarding the health issue; how it has evolved; biological and epidemiological information related to the disease; and major social, cultural, and behavior factors that affect or relate to the health issue.
Relationship Between Health Issue and Target Population: Analyze how social, cultural, and behavior factors in the target population contribute to the health issue; and identify what factors/characteristics are positive or negative and which behaviors/practices/beliefs serve as risk factors or protective factors.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Current Strategies/Interventions: Discuss existing programming to prevent or reduce the health issue within the target population and challenges to interventions and programming.
Recommendations/Conclusion: Make recommendations to resolve the health issue within the target population based on your review of current literature and what you have learned throughout the course.
Minimum of Five References: Use the GCU Library to locate at least five resources, including at least two peer-reviewed articles.
Refer to the “Academic Writing Guidelines Resource.”
Be prepared to present a rough draft of your Research Paper for peer review at the beginning of Topic 6.
Use the completed “Peer Review Guide” from Topic 6 in making revisions and modifications to the final draft of your Research Paper.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to Lopes Write. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
Academic Writing Guidelines Resource
Description Guidelines and Examples
Organization and
Structure Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning that ties the piece together from beginning to ending.
A piece of solid academic writing:
Begins with an introduction regarding the piece’s primary purpose or theme, which prepares the reader for what is to come (i.e., thesis statement).
Ends with a conclusion that summarizes the key points of the piece, draws conclusions, and generally provides closure for the reader.
The body of a piece of academic writing can be organized around a variety of structures.
Examples of organizing structures:
Main idea/thesis, with supporting details/evidence
Comparison-contrast
Deductive logic
Point-by-point analysis
Development of central theme
Chronology or history (e.g., of an event, process, era)
Solid academic writing uses transitional words and phrases to provide logical connections and sequencing. Examples of transitional words:Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Addition: also, again, as well as, besides
Consequence: accordingly, as a result, consequently, for this reason.
Generalizing: as a rule, as usual, generally
Illustration: for example, for instance, for one thing.
Emphasis: above all, chiefly, with attention to, especially, particularly
Similarity: comparatively, coupled with, correspondingly
Exception: aside from, barring, besides, except, excluding
Restatement: in essence, in other words, namely
Comparison: in contrast, by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise
Summarizing: after all, all in all, briefly, in any case, in any event, in conclusion, in short, in summary, finally
Conventions and
Mechanics Description Guidelines and Examples
Solid academic writing is characterized by the proper use of conventions and mechanics, including: spelling, grammar, paragraphing, capitalization, and punctuation.
Examples of conventions and mechanics in academic writing:
Proper use of capitalization, punctuation, and quotation marks.
Subject/verb agreement.
Proper use of pronouns.
Technical abbreviations, acronyms, and units of measurement.
Paragraphs that are indented; consisting of three or more sentences.
Use of title page, headers, and footers.
Avoid the use of: contractions, incomplete and run-on sentences.
Word Choice and Usage In solid academic writing, the use of language is precise, with correct word usage and appropriate word choice.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Guidelines for language use:
In good descriptive writing, strong word choice clarifies and expands ideas.
In persuasive writing, careful word choice moves the reader to a new vision of possibilities.
Effective word choice depends less on an exceptional vocabulary and more on the skill to use everyday words well.
Use a thesaurus for new words with more specific meaning: For example, “pronounce” for “say,” or “embarkation” for “start.” In academic writing, “it” as the subject of a sentence is not acceptable. Make sure the reader knows what the subject of each sentence is.
Research and Resources In solid academic writing, it is at times necessary to support your thesis or argument with outside research. Use of proper resources for accurate and thoughtful support of any argument or position is essential in academic writing. Some strongly recommended sources for student use are:
GCU Library for search engines located at: http://library.gcu.edu
For instructions on how to use the GCU library, access and view our tutorials at:
http://my.gcu.edu/Academics/Library/Pages/Help.aspx
For good research techniques, view the tutorials in the Student Success Center.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Years ago I read the sentence, “How much the people of science know about the things they don’t understand.”1 It stretches our imagination to describe the interactions of genetics, genetics, and nurture that produce a unique human, but just as daunting is understanding the cultural and religious traditions that this unique human navigates. Tradition is the DNA of our beliefs, but then each person modifies that complex for his or her own unique environment. In essence, both the individual and his or her environment are so unique that risks exist in our generalizations. For example, within a single religious denomination is a spectrum of beliefs, and we repeatedly see individuals discard those beliefs in a moment when presented with opportunities involving money, sex, politics, or power. On the public health side, we also see great variations in what practitioners regard as “best practices.” Beware the attempt to label. Nonetheless, we are forced into the role of generalizations as we attempt to make adequate decisions with inadequate information.
C. P. Snow famously said that the gap between science and the humanities could not be bridged,2 but public health does that daily. When AIDS was recognized in the early 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needed social scientists and therefore sought the advice of anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, ethicists, and others. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that we learn geology the day after an earthquake.3 Ebola and AIDS showed that we learn better public health techniques because of disasters. That is how science works.
Income influences health at every income level. It may come as little surprise that the wealthiest people in American are healthier than the poorest. They are also healthier than the middle-class.
People with less incomes have shorter lives, poorer self-reported physical and emotional health, and more chronic disease than their high-income counterparts. For example, of people in America reporting being in poor or fair health: 23 percent had annual incomes below $35,000, with 9 percent who earned $50,000–$75,000 and just 6 percent earning more than $100,000.
People with less income and wealth are less able to pay for health care or health insurance. They are also less likely to afford an education, healthy lifestyles, or to live in safe and healthy neighborhoods. Economic hardship makes people more vulnerable to diseases and to the harmful biological effects of stress.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
What We Learn
People in America with higher education levels have longer lifespans and suffer from fewer chronic diseases. For example, male college graduates in 2008 can expect to live 14 years longer than males without a high school diploma; females in this same comparison can expect to live more than 10 years longer.
Education is linked to financial, social, psychological, and cognitive benefits that promote better health. In fact, these links appear to be growing stronger over time: The life expectancy of whites with less than 12 years of school has decreased since 1990 even as it increased for other people.
The education-link cuts across race, ethnicity, and gender, and is so strong that educational attainment may be more important for health outcomes than quality health care. For example, one study found that Kaiser Permanent e health plan members with less schooling have lower self-reported health levels and higher diabetes mortality rates, even though all members have the same access to care.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Where We Work
For millions of people, a steady job in safe working conditions can provide the income, benefits, and stability necessary for good health. On the flip side, job loss and unemployment is associated with a variety of negative health effects. For example, laid-off workers are 54 percent more likely than those continuously employed to report fair or poor health, and are 83 percent more likely to develop a stress-related condition such as stroke or heart disease.
When it comes to promoting health, not all employment is equal. Health insurance is more likely to be offered to employees earning higher salaries. Some employers offer workplace wellness programs, which studies show save employers an average of $6 for every dollar invested.
The Agenda
Our nation has worked over the past few years to improve health primarily through improving the health care system, focusing less on other critical factors that impact health, such as early childhood development, education, housing, jobs, and the built environment.
There is no doubt that a quality health care system remains critically important. Everybody, regardless of socioeconomic status, will at some point require health care. This is especially true of children and the elderly, who have the most to gain from a reliable health care system. Furthermore, more efficient and transparent health care spending will result in a system that serves the population more effectively, while allowing for people to be educated about where their health care dollars are being spent.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
But a more efficient and transparent health care system is only one piece of the puzzle. That’s why the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is promoting a Culture of Health, which means creating a society where every person has the equal opportunity to live the healthiest life they can, whatever their ethnic, geographic, racial, socioeconomic, or physical circumstance.
Everyone has a role to play in building a Culture of Health, and success will require working within and across all sectors of society. RWJF is partnering with communities, policymakers, businesses, and others willing to find ways to build a Culture of Health for America. The RWJF County Health Rankings & Roadmaps’ What Works for Health helps communities bring together people from a variety of sectors to look at the many factors that influence health and learn from one another about strategies that will have lasting impact (e.g., policies, programs, systems & environmental changes).
We have developed a Culture of Health Action Framework with the RAND Corporation and with input from partners, experts, and colleagues across the country. The Framework describes the fundamental components to improving population health and motivating cultural change.
With the Action Framework as a compass, we will work with others to advance efforts to improve health nationwide and measure our success.
All cultures have systems of health beliefs to explain what causes illness, how it can be cured or treated, and who should be involved in the process. The extent to which patients perceive patient education as having cultural relevance for them can have a profound effect on their reception to information provided and their willingness to use it. Western industrialized societies such as the United States, which see disease as a result of natural scientific phenomena, advocate medical treatments that combat microorganisms or use sophisticated technology to diagnose and treat disease. Other societies believe that illness is the result of supernatural phenomena and promote prayer or other spiritual interventions that counter the presumed disfavor of powerful forces.Cultural issues play a major role in patient compliance. One study showed that a group of Cambodian adults with minimal formal education made considerable efforts to comply with therapy but did so in a manner consistent with their underlying understanding of how medicines and the body work.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Asians/Pacific Islanders are a large ethnic group in the United States. There are several important cultural beliefs among Asians and Pacific Islanders that nurses should be aware of. The extended family has significant influence, and the oldest male in the family is often the decision maker and spokesperson. The interests and honor of the family are more important than those of individual family members. Older family members are respected, and their authority is often unquestioned. Among Asian cultures, maintaining harmony is an important value; therefore, there is a strong emphasis on avoiding conflict and direct confrontation. Due to respect for authority, disagreement with the recommendations of health care professionals is avoided. However, lack of disagreement does not indicate that the patient and family agree with or will follow treatment recommendations. Among Chinese patients, because the behavior of the individual reflects on the family, mental illness or any behavior that indicates lack of self-control may produce shame and guilt. As a result, Chinese patients may be reluctant to discuss symptoms of mental illness or depression.
Some sub-populations of cultures, such as those from India and Pakistan, are reluctant to accept a diagnosis of severe emotional illness or mental retardation because it severely reduces the chances of other members of the family getting married. In Vietnamese culture, mystical beliefs explain physical and mental illness. Health is viewed as the result of a harmonious balance between the poles of hot and cold that govern bodily functions. Vietnamese don’t readily accept Western mental health counseling and interventions, particularly when self-disclosure is expected. However, it is possible to accept assistance if trust has been gained.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
Russian immigrants frequently view U.S. medical care with a degree of mistrust. The Russian experience with medical practitioners has been an authoritarian relationship in which free exchange of information and open discussion was not usual. As a result, many Russian patients find it difficult to question a physician and to talk openly about medical concerns. Patients expect a paternalistic approach-the competent health care professional does not ask patients what they want to do, but tells them what to do. This reliance on physician expertise undermines a patient’s motivation to learn more about self-care and preventive health behaviors.
Although Hispanics share a strong heritage that includes family and religion, each subgroup of the Hispanic population has distinct cultural beliefs and customs. Older family members and other relatives are respected and are often consulted on important matters involving health and illness. Fatalistic views are shared by many Hispanic patients who view illness as God’s will or divine punishment brought about by previous or current sinful behavior. Hispanic patients may prefer to use home remedies and may consult a folk healer, known as a curandero.
Many African-Americans participate in a culture that centers on the importance of family and church. There are extended kinship bonds with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, or individuals who are not biologically related but who play an important role in the family system. Usually, a key family member is consulted for important health-related decisions. The church is an important support system for many African-Americans.
Cultural aspects common to Native Americans usually include being oriented in the present and valuing cooperation. Native Americans also place great value on family and spiritual beliefs. They believe that a state of health exists when a person lives in total harmony with nature. Illness is viewed not as an alteration in a person’s physiological state, but as an imbalance between the ill person and natural or supernatural forces. Native Americans may use a medicine man or woman, known as a shaman.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay
As can be seen, each ethnic group brings its own perspectives and values to the health care system, and many health care beliefs and health practices differ from those of the traditional American health care culture. Unfortunately, the expectation of many health care professionals has been that patients will conform to mainstream values. Such expectations have frequently created barriers to care that have been compounded by differences in language and education between patients and providers from different backgrounds.
Cultural differences affect patients‘ attitudes about medical care and their ability to understand, manage, and cope with the course of an illness, the meaning of a diagnosis, and the consequences of medical treatment. Patients and their families bring culture specific ideas and values related to concepts of health and illness, reporting of symptoms, expectations for how health care will be delivered, and beliefs concerning medication and treatments. In addition, culture specific values influence patient roles and expectations, how much information about illness and treatment is desired, how death and dying will be managed, bereavement patterns, gender and family roles, and processes for decision making.Cultural Factor in Public-Health Essay