How Do You Build a “Culture of Health”? A Critical Analysis of Challenges and Opportunities from Medical Anthropology

Abstract

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Action Framework aims to ''make health a shared value'' and improve population health equity through widespread culture change. The authors draw upon their expertise as anthropologists to identify 3 challenges that they believe must be addressed in order to effectively achieve the health equity and population health improvement goals of the Culture of Health initiative: clarifying and demystifying the concept of ''culture,'' contextualizing ''community'' within networks of power and inequality, and confronting the crises of trust and solidarity in the contemporary United States. The authors suggest that those who seek to build a ''Culture of Health'' refine their understanding of how ''culture'' is experienced, advocate for policies and practices that break down unhealthy consolidations of power, and innovate solutions to building consensus in a divided nation.

Epidemiologizing Culture: Scaling Chineseness through Narratives of Stigma in New York City

“…Prominent anthropologists, from structuralists like Lévi-Strauss to meaning-centered ethnographers like Geertz, treated their interlocutors as "belonging" to discrete, easily definable collectives in much the same way as epidemiologists do (Geertz 2017;Lévi-Strauss 1969). But as ideas about anthropological collectives have morphed into leakier notions of groups that overlap, intersect, and are not bounded (Abu-Lughod 1991;Appadurai 1996;Clifford 1988;Kleinman 1995;Mason et al 2020), the gap between population as epidemiology understands it and anthropological approaches has widened (Janes 2017). Most contemporary anthropologists no longer think of the people they work with as belonging to bounded groups with fixed characteristics.…”

“…But as ideas about anthropological collectives have morphed into leakier notions of groups that overlap, intersect, and are not bounded (Abu‐Lughod 1991; Appadurai 1996; Clifford 1988; Kleinman 1995; Mason et al. 2020), the gap between population as epidemiology understands it and anthropological approaches has widened (Janes 2017). Most contemporary anthropologists no longer think of the people they work with as belonging to bounded groups with fixed characteristics.…”

Influência da cultura de saúde no ambiente de trabalho sobre a adoção de programas baseados em evidências

“…Quadro 1 -Elementos de uma cultura saudável. Adaptado de Webb, Krick e CoH Study Committee Definitions Workgroup-HERO 30…”

“…Não se limita a ações isoladas e integra a saúde na maneira como a organização opera, pensa e age em diferentes frentes 30 Os programas de promoção de saúde e bem-estar exigem investimentos e tempo para sua implantação, e muitos empregadores hesitam, ao avaliar os custos e os benefícios relacionados a estas iniciativas 39 . A cultura de saúde pressupõe:…”

“…A cultura de saúde exige que a visão, missão e os valores da companhia apontem claramente a responsabilidade coletiva e individual de todos os envolvidos na manutenção do nível de saúde e promoção do bemestar para os trabalhadores 68 . A cultura é construída pelo aprendizado compartilhado, na busca da solução de seus problemas de adaptação externa e integração interna, sendo transmitida para os novos membros como uma maneira adequada de perceber, pensar, sentir e se comportar em relação a esses problemas 30 . Portanto, a construção de uma cultura de saúde é um processo contínuo, participativo e integrado, propiciando a adoção de programas, benefícios e ambientes saudáveis de maneira sustentável.…”