Question

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book Discussion

In a perfect world, race, ethnicity and culture would have no negative effect on the medical care we receive, but they often do. The effect is due to historical heritage more than skin color. What is meant by this statement? Provide examples (more than one) with page references where historical heritage affects the ability of the family in the book to negotiate the healthcare system. Consider health literacy, communication, ethics, and health disparities. You will also identify one resource that helps others to understand the concept that you are writing about in this discussion. You must explain why this resource is useful and why we should care about what the author(s) have to say. Note: a web page with multiple authors is not an appropriate resource for this assignment.

Answer 1

The concepts of culture and language formally entered discussion of health literacy with acknowledgement that culture affects health literacy skills, language and culture provide the experiential context for comprehension of health information. The culturally bound beliefs, values, and preferences a person holds influence how a person interprets healthcare messages. Knowing about a patient’s language and culture is key for knowing how health literate the person is in a given situation.

Health literacy disparities in several culturally diverse populations of American adults. Notably, the average health literacy scores for Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and multicultural adults were lower than those of White and Asian/Pacific Islander adults. It has been recognized that health literacy disparities contribute to racial and ethnic health disparities.Patients from cultural minority groups may be more subjected to the effects of low health literacy than patients from the dominant culture because of interactions between literacy, cross-cultural communication barriers including language, and the experience of bias.

A U.S. born patient with low health literacy and hypertension might be able to communicate with nurses, navigate the healthcare system, and self-manage the disease more effectively than a recent refugee who also exhibits low health literacy and hypertension. The native-born patient would be able to rely on English proficiency and some familiarity with the U.S. healthcare system whereas the refugee would lack experiences in these areas.

Beliefs relevant to the health literacy discussion include, but are not limited to, magico-religious, biomedical, and deterministic beliefs. Magico-religious refers to belief in supernatural forces which inflict illness on humans, sometimes as punishment for sins, in the form of evil spirits or disease-bearing foreign objects. This view may be found among Latin American, African American, and Middle Eastern cultures. Biomedical refers to the belief system generally held in the US in which life “is controlled by a series of physical and biochemical processes that can be studied and manipulated by humans.

Some of the necessary health literacy skills and their interconnection with cultural and linguistic skills needed by culturally diverse patients are :

• Reading and writing skills
• Listening and speaking skills
• Numeracy skills
• Critical Thinking and Decision Making

Author Kate Singleton, MSW, LCSW in the article Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Health Literacy states clearly eventhough race,cultural backgroung ethinicity,communications skills,health disparities play an important role in treatment and medical care.