Cultural Influences on Perception of Illness and Medicalization in Healthcare

Running Head: HEALTHCARE
0
Healthcare
2/13/2019

HEALTHCARE
1
The essay brings about the discussion which will be based upon the analysis of two
questions, one from the chapter first and second from the next chapter.
Q3.
To discuss various aspects related to health and illness, it has been understood that
there is a great influence of different cultures shaping the perception of illness. The impact of
the culture, or society or regions, on the health is vast, and it affects our perception, of the
health, illness, and death and beliefs about the aspect of health promotion. For an instance,
occurrence of the mental health issues such as depression is understood or perceived
differently in various countries or cultures (Ratto, Reznick & Turner-Brown, 2016). In
United States, children consider depression or any mental health illness as the result or
negative consequence of the lack of energy or enthusiasm in the younger age. On the other
hand, discussing about the illness of depression in context to the East Asian countries or
cultures, it has been analysed that there has been a high prevalence of the genes associated
with the depression and anxiety disorder. Therefore, the children in these countries believe
that they suffer from many types of mental illness due to the genetic factors, and it cannot be
changed (Jessup et al., 2015).
The perception of children towards illness or specifically towards their mental illness
in countries such as India; they feel the reason of their suffering is related to the factors or
aspects of Karma. The factor of Karma or good or bad deeds has been found relevant in the
regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. While, children in their younger age believed to be affected
by any illness because of the stress or family issues or economic hardship by their family for
a longer period (Van der Kaap-Deeder et al., 2017). Thus, on average it was found that
children in most of the western countries reported their illness, due to the burden or stress, i.e.
stress due to environmental factors. The perception of the occurrence of illness is also
followed by the psychological, biological causes and supernatural forces along with the
stress. In context to the children, in the rural areas or families, believe the cause of illness or
disease is due to the unsafe water consumption or food at their homes. Thus, the above
section has demonstrated well the cultural influences or perception of children towards illness
(Greenhalgh & Goozner, 2017).