Culture as an explanation in population health

Abstract

In the last two decades, culture has emerged in population health as a common explanation for health outcomes and disparities. This paper systematically reviews such cultural accounts, focusing on a historical sample of articles from prominent population health journals (1930-2008, n=100) and a contemporary sample of articles in the American Journal of Public Health (2008, n=95). The review reveals that references to culture rarely (1) specify the precise pathways by which culture influences health or (2) assess the plausibility of these pathways. Despite these weaknesses, a few studies have begun to clarify, measure, and assess how culture can influence health outcomes, and these articles reflect promising new avenues for understanding how cultural factors influence variation in health and well-being.

Applying the concept of culture to reduce health disparities through health behavior research

“…Evidence to support defining the concept is presented below, to counter the narrow, static, unidimensional, concept currently used in health research (Dressler et al, 2005;Hruschka, 2009;Nichter, 2003).…”

“…In a recent review of the American Journal of Public Health in 2008, 95 articles referenced "culture" or "cultural" in the abstract or body of the text (Hruschka, 2009). Culture was claimed to influence health behavior in 40% of the articles and 18% described culture as a source of measurement problems.…”

Coping and the biosocial consequences of food insecurity in the 21st century

“…Another important area of research that overlaps with biological anthropologists' interests in health lies in the link between food insecurity and chronic disease. Anthropologists are asking important questions about persistent challenges to population health and the pathways through which environmental context shapes biological outcomes, producing health disparities (Schell, 1997;Worthman and Kohrt, 2005;Kuzawa and Sweet, 2008;Hruschka, 2009). Chronic and infectious diseases are areas of interest for biological anthropologists, particularly the relationship between food insecurity and the incidence, prevalence, and progression of illness.…”

Culture and epidemiology special issue: Towards an integrated study of culture and population health

“…Towards this aim, Hruschka offers a systematic review of the varied ways in which the concept of culture has been utilized and deployed in the epidemiological and population health literature (Hruschka 2009). Brown and colleagues then describe their use of ethnography with Cherokee and White youth to identify locally meaningful life course barriers and the steps required to translate these elements into an instrument that can be utilized in an epidemiological study design (Brown et al 2009).…”