GROUP 13

Se Angeline, Ivan Villanueva, Jane Ytac

SUMMARY

TOPIC: HEALTH CARE BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN HEALTH EDUCATION

Traditional Health Beliefs and Practices

Worldview , cultural outlook

● Unique outlook of life based on understanding and ranking of values.

● Collective expression of preferences and priorities – not absolutes and each individual may hold range
of beliefs.

Cultural Outlook

● Expectation about personal and public ways, theories regarding social interactions, and assessment of
individual behavior are determined by cultural outlook or worldview.

● Influence perception about health and illness and role of each within society.

● In some culture general check up is unknown where fate controls.

● Significant or fate overlap with differences in perception of time.

● The beliefs and values on self-decision ( personal relation or actions ) affect the responsibility of
dealing and treatment.

● Life and death health care decision varies among culture depends on beliefs and value.

Biomedical Worldview

● Health can be measured numerically and that there are standardized definition of diseases.

Personal control or fate?

● Medical system leave little room for chance or intervention

● Individual inherits a certain psychological and has personal responsibility to make choices that prevent
disease
What is Health?

● State of complete physical, mental, and social well-being (WHO)

● This definition don’t fit the worldview of many cultural groups’ it ignore natural, holy, and
supernatural dimension of health.

● Health in other culture is less dependent on symptoms than on the ability to achieve daily
responsibility.

Health Attribute

● As health is defined culturally, so are the characteristics identified with health and vary among culture

Health Habits

● There is some broad area of intercultural agreement on health habits.

● Nearly people identify a good diet, enough rest, good hygiene is important to be healthy. The
variations of among culture are in the definition of these terms.

Promotion of Food Habits

● Food habit most important way in which a person can maintain health.

● Most culture classifies certain foods as necessary for strength, and mental acuity. Some also include
items that create balance within the body and soul.

● Quantity of food is often associated with health as well.

Cultural definitions of disease, illness and sickness

● Illness is caused by disease, defined as abnormalities or malfunctioning of body organs and systems.

● Cultural agreement on the meaning of sickness.

● During the onset of a sickness, physical or behavioral complaints make a person aware that problems
exists.

● Except in emergencies, an individual usually seeks confirmation of illness first from family of friends.

Biomedical culture (causes of disease)

 1. Immediate causes (bacterial, toxins).
2. Underlying causes (smoking, high cholesterol level).
3. Ultimate causes (environmental stress, obesity).

Explanatory Models (cause of sickness)

● THE PATIENT

● THE NATURAL WORLD

● THE SOCIAL WORLD

● THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD

Explanatory Models (cause of sickness)

● Sickness due to the patient: sickness that develop within the individual, usually related to person’s or
lifestyle.

● Sickness due to the natural world: etiology in the natural world includes environmental elements such
as weather, pollution and toxic.

● Sickness due to the social world: sickness attribute to social causes happens around interpersonal
conflict within a community.

● Sickness due to supernatural world: sickness is caused by the action of God.