Health education: what anthropology can teach us.
Understanding how or why people from different countries relate to a situation because of their cultural background and experience is helpful whenever health professionals are counselling or teaching. With direct input from the ethnic communities, NHS services are more likely to be responsive to the needs and beliefs of different cultures. Public health ideas from the developed West should never be imported to a developing country without a thorough understanding of the culture of that country. People's beliefs about disease are shaped partly by their cultural background. Lay people voice their experience of disease in a language passed on from generation to generation. A good working rule in health education is to "start where the people are", even if this sometimes means resisting the urge to impart the latest scientific knowledge.
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D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D016746:Transcultural Nursing