Health Culture Essay

2026 Words9 Pages
INTRODUCTION This assignment is about different concepts of health and illness according to age, gender and time. It helps us to analyse cultural differences in perceptions of and responses to health and illness. It also shows the models of health, biomedical and biopsychosocial models in perspective by the medical profession. Cultural differences are common and it also shows in health perspective. Different people of different culture have differences in their way of living which includes values, beliefs, thinking patterns etc. This directly hinders their health and illness and health care delivery. This assignment includes the concept of health and illness in India and UK and also shows the cultural differences taking an example of disease i.e. diabetes. DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS There are many concepts of health and illness according to age, gender and time. This can also be due to wide variations in understandings and awareness. Educational differences as well as class, gender and the structures within society, can influence an individual’s perception of what constitutes illness and healthy behaviours. In addition, personal perceptions can change over time. ACCORDING TO GENDER Throughout entire industrial world men live shorter lives. Men are more likely to die at any given age than women of the same age but females are more likely to experience high morbidity rates. And women are far more likely to visit the doctor than men. Over the last 100 years, in all contemporary advanced industrial societies, life expectancy has increased for both men and women but higher for women. Major causes of death among British men are heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis, accidents and other violent deaths. For women cancers of breast cervix and uterus are major causes of mortality. And now Coronary heart disease is a major
Open Document