Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity Understanding People, Reducing Disparities

The term culture has increasingly been used in the discourse of public health, for example, with respect to issues of health disparities in the U.S., the development and implementation of ;culturally competent' or ;culturally appropriate' programs, and in many other ways. What exactly is culture, however?Published in partnership with the American Public Health Association, this newest offering in the Essential Public Health series examines what is meant by culture, the ways in which culture intersects with health issues, how pubic health efforts can benefit by understanding and working with cultural processes, and a brief selection of conceptual tools and research methods that are useful in identifying relationships between culture and health.Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity includes practical guidelines for incorporating cultural understanding in public health settings, and examples of programs where that has occurred.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Section1 Culture and the Human Condition - An Introduction
Chapter1 There is Health, and There is Health: An Introductory Conversation about Health from Different Cultural Perspectives.
Chapter2 The Starting Point: Defining Culture, Defining Health
Section2 Tools and Perspectives for Understanding the Relationship between Culture and Health
Chapter3 Ethnomedicine: Cultural Health Systems of Related Knowledge and Practice
Chapter4 Ethnomedicine II - Cultural Systems of Psychology, Mental and Emotional Health
Chapter5 The Moral Dimension - The Relationship of Etiology to Morality (and Stigma) in Cultural Beliefs and Practices Related to Health
Chapter6 Culture, Healers, and the Institutions of Health
Chapter7 Socio-Cultural Ecologies of Disease and Illness: The Creation of Vulnerability
Chapter8 Culture, Subculture and Constructions of Health Risk
Section3 Applying Concepts of Cultural Diversity to Health Promotion
Chapter9 The Dimensions of Culture and a Sampling of Current Public Health Challenges
Chapter10 Research Strategies to Help Identify Cultural Factors: A Brief Primer
Chapter11 Incorporating Cultural Knowledge in Public Health Interventions: Selected Examples
Chapter12 Wrapping Up: Cultural Competence in Public Health