The Role and Importance of Culture

What is culture?

• Culture provides people with a framework for living and for interpreting their environment
• Culture can emerge from ethnicity, language, nationality or religion, sexual orientation or gender identification, but it is not synonymous with any of them
• Culture incorporates:
  • Language
  • Shared values
  • Traditions
  • Norms and customs
  • The arts
  • History
  • Folklore
  • Institutions
• Culture shapes how people see their world and structure their community and family life

Where do I start in developing appropriate health messages and services?

Whether you're talking about a midwestern farm community or San Francisco's Chinatown, culture affects how people respond to messages communicated through various channels:

• Mass media
• Community events
• Family discussions
• Person-to-person encounters

Step 1. Considerations when designing targeted disease prevention messages

• Beliefs about health are often based on folk wisdom, traditions and customs
• Beliefs about health services and care can be based on legal sanctions
• Beliefs, customs or traditions may reinforce old patterns that no longer work
• Older adults may have modified customs or traditions, engaging new ways of coping with our rapidly changing American culture

Examples - Health Beliefs