All the cultures of the world have beliefs on health that tend to explain the causes of diseases, treatment as well as who should be involved. The degree to which the patient perceive health care as having some cultural relevance usually has profound impacts on his or her reception of health information provided as well as the willingness to use it (Euromed info, 2017). Among the Chinese Americans, gender and age are a major consideration in decision making. The oldest man in a family is the most revered. Accordingly, due to authority and respect the older members of the family have a say on which method will be adopted with regards to health care of a member of the family.
The Chinese Americans also believe strongly in supplements and herbal treatments. Use of such drugs may not be mentioned during medication review for a patient complicating the treatment since full information is not presented. They also have a strong belief in philosophies such as karma and thus may hide their diseases from their family with the idea that if they spoke about their illnesses, the infection would exacerbate or bring bad luck to the patient or those close to him or her ( Ma, et al, 2015 ). The situation is even worse for the Asian Americans in the low income cluster, uneducated and with poor command of English language. They often do not schedule health maintenance visits. Such people only seek the doctors when the symptoms have become very severe and their alternative treatment method have failed.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
One of the emerging issue among the Chinese Americans’ health is the prevalence of Hepatitis B a disease caused by hepatitis B virus that is responsible for liver carcinoma. It is transmitted through contact with infected body fluids or blood and thus transmitted through sex with an infected person, sharing needles or from mother to child during birth (Tran, 2009). Usually, more than a third of the people with untreated hepatitis B die from cirrhosis or liver cancer.
The hepatitis B prevalence in the Chinese Americans is disproportionately high as compared to the larger population of the United States. This is worsened by the difficulty in effectively managing the infection because of the cultural barriers. Other challenges in administering health care to Chinese Americans include low socioeconomic status, educational deficits, non-citizenship, lack of health insurance and inability to communicate (Ma, et al, 2015). Others have a negative perception of the western health system and underrepresentation within the healthcare system cannot be ignored.
With these dynamics the health care provider should find ways to understand the health issues of the patient. Gaw (2019), suggests that a physician should start by assessing the language as well the degree of acculturation. It would be important to gain an understanding of the patient’s beliefs as some of the patients may hold on to their cultural values and concepts of health and diseases. It means that they might not disclose the full information required for effective health care provision. Additionally, since most of the Asian Americans perceive doctors and other healthcare providers as authority, it would be important to encourage the patients to participate in their care. The patient should be informed on the importance of taking blood pressure, pulse checking as well as advice on feeding habits. Such an approach will ease diagnosis and treatment as well as communicating preventive measure to Chinese American and reduce prevalence of infections such as hepatitis B.
References
Euromed Info (2017). How culture influences health beliefs. Retrieved from https://www.euromedinfo.eu/how-culture-influences-health-beliefs.html/
Gaw, A (2019). Working with Asian American patients. American Psychiatrist Association . Retrieved from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/cultural-competency/education/best-practice-highlights/working-with-asian-american-patients
Ma, G. X., Zhang, G. Y., Zhai, S., Ma, X., Tan, Y., Shive, S. E., & Wang, M. Q. (2015). Hepatitis B screening among Chinese Americans: a structural equation modeling analysis. BMC infectious diseases , 15 , 120. doi:10.1186/s12879-015-0854-7
Tran, T (2009). Understanding cultural barriers in hepatitis B virus infection. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine . 76(3):10-13
