Cultural Differences In Health Care

The world is awash in “simple and effective solutions” to many problems – medicines, soap for handwashing, vitamin pills, vaccines, breastfeeding and many more. What makes these seemingly simple solutions complex in reality?

There are many major factors which make simple and effective solutions to many healthcare problems extremely complex. The first and probably most obvious of these factors is the severe lack of trained healthcare workers and physicians around the world, especially in areas where particular healthcare problems are more prevalent. In many parts of the world, there are not enough trained healthcare professionals to appropriately treat and educate patients about their conditions. This education includes increasing awareness

Cultural beliefs about medicine might prevent someone from seeking medical care. Unless these beliefs are understood, cultural beliefs will pose a barrier in the effectiveness of global health interventions. The Unite for Sight article mentions that in order for a global health intervention to be effective, it must address both the cultural and social dimensions of healthcare. The article talks about the importance of community engagement and building trust between the local population and the foreign healthcare workers, by discussing the importance of community healthcare workers and partnering with local physicians, both of whom are aware of local cultural practices and public health issues. The video about the course offered at Harvard, reiterates this importance by describing that healthcare delivery cannot be effective unless there is an understanding of how the biological and social factors interact. This course addresses this importance by framing health problem cases by using social theories (what the researches call “biosocial”). This case-based learning approach, especially demonstrated in the Harvard public health course, could help students be more prepared to solve the complexities posed in global health, by introducing and emphasizing the importance of cultural and social factors

Of course, global health deals directly with health-related issues, but there are so many other complex factors which relate to health in various communities. For example, my research topic, social protection, did not seem to have many direct ties to global health at first, however I quickly realized that although it did not directly relate to the health problems facing Zambia, it definitely did have indirect connections to issues such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Realizing that global health consists of numerous fields outside infectious diseases and epidemiology really opened my eyes to the scope of the field and the interconnectedness of various disciplines around and through global