Culture and Health Attitudes

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| Culture and Health Attitudes | How Culture Influences Individual Attitudes on Health | | Alina Campbell | 11/11/2012 | This paper will explain the importance of health to American society, and compare and contrast those of other cultures. | Health related issues have become very important in our culture. Our society has improved personal and public health due to the link between health and communication, which has grown and been recognized as a main element. Communication can contribute to prevention of disease, relationship between doctor and patient, and change individual and public attitudes and behaviors. Individually, health communication can help raise awareness of health risks and give one the proper information to reduce those risks. Publicly, health communication can influence public agenda, promote positive attitudes in health, and support beliefs, values, and norms that benefit health quality. In an article by Chen & Liu (2010), they explain how the Institute of Health Communications in China has been the leading health educator and has served the Chinese media with information on fighting HIV/AIDS, SARS, Bird flu, H1N1, and tobacco smoking control. The media plays a major role in most developed countries beliefs on health. This institute is attempting to bring knowledge to the Chinese culture, to educate and strengthen health communication, as the U.S. has done. Successful public health initiatives would not be possible unless we educate the public properly (Chen & Liu, 2010). In order to promote public health the authors did studies on tobacco smoking among youth in the U.S., tobacco control policies in Korea, and the role of media attitudes associated with HIV/AIDS in China (Chen & Liu, 2010). This was done in order to develop a strategy to aid disease prevention and promote public health worldwide. Culture surrounds

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