Culture and the risk of disease

British Medical Bulletin
William W Dressler

Abstract

Decades of research have demonstrated that disease risk varies in relation to culture. Much of this research has focused on blood pressure, given its relative ease of measurement under difficult field conditions. Community average blood pressures in more developed, industrialized societies are higher than those in less developed, traditional societies. These differences can be accounted for only in part by differences in body composition and nutrient intake. A portion of the difference is accounted for by more direct effects of culture on individual behaviour and physiology. This chapter reviews this evidence. Approaches to this research have included studies of communities differing in exposure to modernizing influences; studies of sociocultural stresses generated within the process of social change and modernization; and, studies of how individual differences in the ability to act on shared cultural models (referred to as 'cultural consonance') are associated with disease risk. Clinical implications of these results are briefly discussed.

Citations

May 15, 2007·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·William W DresslerJosé Ernesto Dos Santos
Jul 2, 2009·Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine·Takeaki TakeuchiEiji Yano
Jul 28, 2010·Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology·Cleopatra M AbdouCurt Sandman
Aug 29, 2013·International Journal of Circumpolar Health·Jordan Lewis
Nov 1, 2012·Annals of Anthropological Practice·Rosa M Gonzalez-GuardaNilda Peragallo
Dec 25, 2016·Gynecological Endocrinology : the Official Journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology·Anneke WilhelmPeter Herbert Kann
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Jan 31, 2020·Transcultural Psychiatry·Daina Crafa, Saskia K Nagel
Apr 22, 2009·Annals of Human Biology·Daniel J Hruschka
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Jul 30, 2008·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·Catherine Panter-BrickThomas W McDade
Aug 3, 2021·Journal of Population Economics·Neha Deopa, Piergiuseppe Fortunato

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