Question

Choose a cultural group within your community and exaime the health data for your community. What data are available for the cultural group of interest? What are the differences in morbidty and mortality rates for whites and members of the community youre interested in? What factors influence the health outcomes for the group of interest? Present your paper in a 300 word APA formatted paper.

Answer 1

Every culture has its own customs, some of which have a profound influence on the health, incidence of diseases. In developed countries like America and for example, cancer of the lung from smoking and cirrhosis of liver from drinking are the result of the abuse of widely proclaimed social habits. Culture stands for the customs, beliefs, laws, religion, and moral percepts, arts and other capabilities and skills acquired by mans as a member of society. In India chewing pan (betel leaf) is associated with oral cancer. That means cultural factors are deeply involved in matters of personal hygiene, nutrition, immunization, seeking early medical care, family planning , child rearing , disposal of refuse and excreta , outlook on health and disease- in short , the whole way of life.

By doing correlation and regression analysis, it is possible to see how the different factors as explained above would contribute or explain the trends in mortality rates. The reasons behind the rise in mortality of this particular age group are suicide, drug and alcohol poisoning, liver infections and obesity. The increase in trend of this mortality was increased usage of drugs like opioids, heroin and alcohols. Take a brief account of cultural factor mother & child health relating to health & sickness as observed in India.

Mother & child health is surrounded by a wide range of customs & beliefs all over the world. Marriage is universal in Indian society & the family is incomplete without the birth of a male child. This has obvious implications in the context of the country's population problem & male female ratio. The various customs in the field of mother & child health have been classified as good, bad, unimportant & uncertain.

1. Good: Prolonged breastfeeding, oil bath, Massage & exposure to sun are good customs.

2. Bad: Eating some foods like Eggs, Fish, Milk etc are forbidden in some parts of the country, conduction of deliveries by the traditional untrained women in rural areas, putting the child for the breastfeeding after 3 days of birth as there is belief that colostrums might be harmful, branding of the skin, administration of opium & drastic purgatives are all bad customs. The net result of this customs is high infant mortality & morbidity.

3. Unimportant: Punching the ear & nose, application of oil or a paste of turmeric on the interior fontanels.

4. Uncertain: Applying Kajal or black soot mixed with oil to eyelids partly for beautification and partly for warding off the effects of evil eye. This custom has been blamed for transmitting Trachoma & other eye infections.

Knowledge of the local customs & beliefs is therefore very important for improving health status of mothers & children & now it is included in & as a part of social pediatrics.

In developed countries the mother & child healthcare services are highly developed & made accessible to all population therefore there is decrease ratio in mother & child mortality & morbidity rate.