Culture and Medicine I and II

Question 1

____ tend to receive lower quality health care, even when access-related factors, such as patients’ income or insurance status are controlled

Answer 1

racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower quality health care, even when access-related factors, such as patients’ income or insurance status are controlled

Question 2

describe 3 things that lead to the differences in care between non-minority and minority

Answer 2

Question 3

describe the core paradox

Answer 3

how could well-meaning and highly educated health professional, working in their usual circumstances with diverse populations of patients, create a pattern of care that appears to be discriminatory?

Question 4

describe possible explanations to the core paradox

Answer 4

• bias: no evidence suggests that providers are more likely than the general public to express biases, but some evidence suggests that unconscious biases may exist
• uncertainty: a plausible hypothesis, particularly when providers treat patients that are dissimilar in cultural or linguistic background
• stereotyping: evidence suggests that physicians, like everyone else, use these “cognitive shortcuts”

Question 5

describe overgeneralization

Answer 5

• individual variation exists within cultures
• cultural descriptions will not apply to each individual within a culture

Question 6

describe ethnocentrism

Answer 6

the tendency to assume that one’s own way of life (culture) is superior to the culture of others

Question 7

name the 3 elements of ethno-medical systems

Answer 7

1. theory of etiology of illness
2. techniques for diagnosing illness
3. methods for appropriate therapy

Question 8

individuals’ ideas about health, illness and healing emerge from ____

Answer 8

individuals ‘ ideas about health, illness and healing emerge from cultures

Question 9

describe the hot-cold theory of disease

Answer 9

Question 10

describe ORT in Pakistan

Answer 10

Question 11

describe culture-bound syndromes

Answer 11

• clusters of symptoms, signs and behavioral changes, the presentation of which is unique to a particular culture
• members of the culture recognize the syndrome and respond to it in a standardized way
• the conditions often have symbolic meaning–moral, social or psychological–to the victim and to those around him or her
• the condition often links an individual case of illness with wider concerns, including his/her relationship with the community, supernatural forces, and/or the environment

Question 12

describe amok

Answer 12

Question 13

describe Ataque de Nervios

Answer 13

Question 14

describe koro

Answer 14

Question 15

describe the explanatory model of illness

Answer 15

• the explanatory model is an individual’s personal interpretation of disease
• open communication, beginning with the patient’s explanatory model, fosters mutual respect and is the key to cultural insight

Question 16

describe questions for eliciting a patient’s explanatory model of sickness (Kleinman)

Answer 16

Question 17

describe CLAS standards

Answer 17