Health and Culture : Beyond the Western Paradigm

Offering a trenchant analysis of the effect that culture has in determining our perceptions - and expectations - of health care, this provocative volume challenges traditional, Westernized, medical models. The author surveys various aspects of the health education domain, discusses the elements that inform an educational diagnosis of health behaviour and considers the cultural appropriateness of health behaviour in general.

Offering a trenchant analysis of the effect culture has in determining our perceptions and expectations of health care, this provocative volume challenges the traditional, westernized medical model. An insightful alternative, author Collins O. Airhihenbuwa presents the PEN-3 model based on elements of PRECEDE, health belief, and reasoned action models of health behavior. Within this framework, the author surveys such aspects of the health education as person, extended family, and neighborhood; discusses the elements that inform an educational diagnosis of health behavior, including perceptions, enablers, and nurturers; and considers the cultural appropriateness of health behavior, examining positive, negative, and existential beliefs. The work culminates in the model′s application to specific populations, from women and children of all races to subgroups within the African American community. Health and Culture provides compelling evidence of the importance of the PEN-3 model in developing sound, relevant promotional health programs. It is essential reading for professionals, researchers, and advanced students in public health, the health sciences, and ethnic studies. "This is an exciting book. It will provoke much discussion and add to the discourse on new ways of viewing the world. Author Collins O. Airhihenbuwa has done a masterful job of writing in this work. I′ll use his work in many of my classes on culture and politics." --Molefi Kete Asante, author of The Afrocentric Idea "This pathbreaking iconoclastic analysis of the relationship between health and culture provides novel insights for those concerned with health and health services both in former colonial societies and in postindustrial nations. Everyone who has confronted the issues that dissonant and `traditional′ health beliefs and practices pose to promotion of health and treatment of disease, or who is concerned that `development′ has become simply a code word for `westernization,′ should become conversant with the exciting new concepts in Health and Culture." --Victor W. Sidel, M.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine and