Society, Culture & Health Care system
Dr. Babar T Shaikh
The Aga Khan University, Karachi
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If anything was made to be taken for granted, it is ‘culture’.
Gallagher and Subedi, 1995
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Culture
The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.
The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization. 3
Culture
contd…
Intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced by it. Development of the intellect through training or education.
Enlightenment resulting from such training or education. A high degree of taste and refinement formed by aesthetic and intellectual training.
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Culture
1. a particular civilization at a particular stage
contd…
2. the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group
3. all the knowledge and values shared by a society
WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
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Culture
contd…
The act of, or any labor or means employed for, training, disciplining, or refining the moral and intellectual nature of man; as, the culture of the mind.
The Webster's Dictionary
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Characteristics of ‘Culture’
• Culture is ‘symbolic’
• Culture is ‘learned’ • Culture is ‘shared’ • Culture is ‘adaptive’
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Elements of ‘Culture’
Symbols Language Values Norms Folklore Ideology Religion Mass Media ‘Cultural Lag’
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Global Culture
Ethnocentrism
Cultural hegemony
Cultural relativism
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Health and the Health Care System
A set of cultural beliefs underlying health seeking and health promoting behavior.
Institutional arrangements within which that behavior occurs.
Health System
Socio-economic, political, and physical context of these beliefs and institutions.
Institutional arrangements include family, community, 10 health care services, and other related sectors.
Health and the Health Care System
HEALTH SYSTEM WOULD INCLUDE: Cultural beliefs and practices Environmental conditions Nutrition Water supply Education Housing Status of women Social structure Economic / political systems
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Health and the Health Care System
• Health Care System: a part of the health system -
one aspect of the institutional arrangements. • Health: Full development of the human potential. A fundamental right? Freedom from unnecessary illness and premature death is a fundamental prerequisite for development. • Health and development: intricately interrelated. Health is both a condition and a product of development. • Health: the role of healthy public policy.
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Viability
HEALTH
ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMY
Equity
Sustainability
Health (full development of the human potential) requires both an adequate economy and a viable 13 environment.
Determinants of health
Social Environment Physical Environment Biological Endowment
Individual Responses
Illness
Health Care
Health Status __
Productivity & Wealth
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