Systems of Medical Knowledge: A Comparative Approach

Racial Differences in Barriers to Blood Pressure Control in a Family Practice Setting

“…Blood pressure levels have been demonstrated to be inversely related to socioeconomic status, and African Americans have low socioeconomic status at disparate rates. 35 Despite data collection within a primary care clinic, the African American respondents reported lower household incomes, and a greater proportion were without health insurance. Furthermore, concerns about being financially able to eat healthy foods and to afford health care were expressed.…”

Quality of life and understanding of disease status among cancer patients of different ethnic origin

“…There are systematic variations across ethnic groups in experience with illness, expectations from treatment and acceptability of treatment (Juarez et al, 1999). Ethnic origin and social position are known to influence health-related behaviour, perceptions and meaning of life; they may also influence explanations about sickness by health professionals (Kleinman and Mendelsohn, 1978). There have been few studies of knowledge of disease status in cancer patients of different ethnic origins, but in general Latino and Black patients appear to have less accurate knowledge than Whites and Asians (Michielutte and Diseker, 1982;Stone and Siegel, 1986;PerezStable et al, 1992;Meyerowitz et al, 1998).…”

SPIRIT advance care planning intervention in early stage dementias: An NIH stage I behavioral intervention development trial

“…Representations are based on an individual’s experiences, cultural traditions, or media and may not be medically accurate. It is critical to understand a patient’s representations because they filter new learning: representations serve as the cognitive framework that affects whether or not individuals accept or reject new information [12], and whether knowledge leads to behavior change [16, 17], The conceptual change model proposes that the likelihood of learning increases when the individual has an opportunity to reflect and comment on current ideas when the individual is dissatisfied with current ideas or recognizes their limitations, and when alternative information is seen as beneficial [12, 13, 15, 18]. Learning and change can occur through integrating new information into existing representations to fill gaps in understanding, by clarifying existing representations to reduce confusion, or through replacing existing ideas with new information [18, 19].…”