Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures: literature review and proposed guidelines.

Expert Panel Report 2: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma

Despite a growing interest in qualitative research in occupational therapy, little attention has been placed on establishing its rigor. This article presents one model that can be used for the assessment of trustworthiness or merit of qualitative inquiry. Guba's (1981) model describes four general criteria for evaluation of research and then defines each from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. Several strategies for the achievement of rigor in qualitative research useful for both researchers and consumers of research are described.

Rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness.

Background Many people use unconventional therapies for health problems, but the extent of this use and the costs are not known. We conducted a national survey to determine the prevalence, costs, and patterns of use of unconventional therapies, such as acupuncture and chiropractic. Methods We limited the therapies studied to 16 commonly used interventions neither taught widely in U.S. medical schools nor generally available in U.S. hospitals. We completed telephone interviews with 1539 adults (response rate, 67 percent) in a national sample of adults 18 years of age or older in 1990. We asked respondents to report any serious or bothersome medical conditions and details of their use of conventional medical services; we then inquired about their use of unconventional therapy. Results One in three respondents (34 percent) reported using at least one unconventional therapy in the past year, and a third of these saw providers for unconventional therapy. The latter group had made an average of 19 visits to suc...

Unconventional medicine in the United States. Prevalence, costs, and patterns of use.

To maintain their own health and the health of their families and communities, consumers rely heavily on the health information that is available to them. This information is at the core of the partnerships that patients and their families forge with today?s complex modern health systems. This information may be provided in a variety of forms ? ranging from a discussion between a patient and a health care provider to a health promotion advertisement, a consent form, or one of many other forms of health communication common in our society. Yet millions of Americans cannot understand or act upon this information. To address this problem, the field of health literacy brings together research and practice from diverse fields including education, health services, and social and cultural sciences, and the many organizations whose actions can improve or impede health literacy. Health Literacy: Prescription to End Confusion examines the body of knowledge that applies to the field of health literacy, and recommends actions to promote a health literate society. By examining the extent of limited health literacy and the ways to improve it, we can improve the health of individuals and populations.

Health literacy : a prescription to end confusion

Major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access to care, and spiraling costs no longer seem amenable to traditional biomedical solutions. Concepts derived from anthropologic and cross-cultural research may provide an alternative framework for identifying issues that require resolution. A limited set of such con- cepts is described and illustrated, including a fundamental distinction between disease and illness, and the notion of the cultural construction of clinical reality. These social science concepts can be developed into clinical strategies with direct application in practice and teaching. One such strategy is outlined as an example of a clinical social science capa- ble of translating concepts from cultural anthropology into clinical language for practical application. The implemen- tation of this approach in medical teaching and practice requires more support, both curricular and financial.

https://focus.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/foc.4.1.140

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons from Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

Preface 1. Medical anthropology and the problem of belief 2. Illness representations in medical anthropology: a reading of the field 3. How medicine constructs its objects 4. Semiotics and the study of medical reality 5. The body, illness experience, and the lifeworld: a phenomenological account of chronic pain 6. The narrative representation of illness 7. Aesthetics, rationality and medical anthropology.

Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective

Culture and stigma: adding moral experience to stigma theory.

1. The global context of well-being 2. Mental illness and psychiatric services 3. Suicide 4. Substance abuse 5. Violence 6. Dislocation 7. Children and youth 8. Women 9. The elderly 10. Behavior and health 11. Conclusions and an agenda for action 12. An agenda for research

World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries

Major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access to care, and spiraling costs no longer seem amenable to traditional biomedical solutions. Concepts derived from anthropologic and cross-cultural research may provide an alternative framework for identifying issues that require resolution. A limited set of such concepts is described and illustrated, including a fundamental distinction between disease and illness, and the notion of the cultural construction of clinical reality. These social science concepts can be developed into clinical strategies with direct application in practice and teaching. One such strategy is outlined as an example of a clinical social science capable of translating concepts from cultural anthropology into clinical language for practical application. The implementation of this approach in medical teaching and practice requires more support, both curricular and financial.

Byron J. Good

Papers

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons from Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective

Culture and stigma: adding moral experience to stigma theory.

World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons From Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research