Defining Culture
The National Institutes of Health (NIH, 2021b) describes culture as the
combination of a body of knowledge, a body of belief, and a body of behavior. It involves several elements that are often specific to ethnic, racial, religious, geographic, or social groups. This includes personal identification, language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions. For the provider of health information or health care, these elements influence belief systems surrounding health, healing, wellness, illness, disease, and delivery of health services.
Culture encompasses values that are generationally shared by families both in writing and through informal storytelling. Linguistically, culture incorporates language and communication patterns that are unique to communities of people. Culture impacts responses to life events, such as death, celebrations of births, religious events and holidays, pain, and crises.
Subcultures are groups of people who are members of a larger cultural group. Members of a subculture may vary in their physical appearance and occupation compared to the primary culture. Cultural characteristics, such as physical appearance and ethnicity (a common heritage, identification) as well as occupation, change when cultural assimilation occurs among members of the identified minority culture when they choose to identify with the dominant culture in order to avoid discrimination (Taylor et al., 2019).
Race
Race is typically equated with physical characteristics associated with facial structure and features, skin pigmentation, hair texture, and body stature. The US federal government currently recognizes the following groups as racial groups: White, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black and African American, and Asian (Office of Civil Rights, 1997).
Culture, Race, Ethnicity and Health Disparities
Culture, race, and ethnicity become factors impacting health disparities when persons, because of their identified ethnicity, cultural and physical characteristics differentiating them from other people, causes others to treat them wrongfully. However, culture and race should have no effect on one’s health. Attributing risk factors or health indicators associated with race and culture can correlate with decreases or increases in lifespan longevity and incidence of disease. Hence, in addressing health disparities, it is imperative that culture and race be a part of the discussion and the plan to facilitate change.
African American children who reside in low-income communities and are diagnosed with asthma could benefit from the early intervention of nurse-led school-based teams with a focus on health promotion. School nurses can be instrumental in managing the health of African American children diagnosed with childhood asthma within the school setting. By collaborating with other disciplines within school systems, African American children and their families and community-based health care providers, school nurses can effectively advocate for the stabilization of asthma symptoms within low-income populations.