Sociocultural perspective in health

Individual health is determined not only by biological/inborn factors but also socio-cultural factors. As health is considered a social good and a valuable asset to be achieved in our societies, it becomes important to understand health from the macro-level point of view. Recently, research on the impact of the social resources on health and disease has been increased. This is because social resources are highly related to the health status such as mental and physical disorder or mortality (Cobb, 1976). Research on social resources can be divided into two main subjects, which are social network and social supports. Researchers who study on the social network focus on the impact of the structure of the interpersonal relationship on health conditions such as magnitude, reciprocity and frequency of the personal relationship. In contrast, researchers studying social supports on health address how interpersonal resources such as emotional, cognitive and material supports affect individual health conditions (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Jacobson, 1986). According to Berkman and Syme(1979), a social network has a positive effect on various health indexes. For example, it was found that a socially-cohesive society showed relatively lower disease incident rate compared with an individual-based society in case other economic and social environments are similar between two societies. With regards to the effect of the social supports on health, it was found that social supports have both main effect and buffering effect on health. Researchers baking up the main effect (direct effect) of the social supports argue that social supports always efficiently contribute to reducing a stress level regardless of the level of stress. However, those who support for the buffering effect of the social supports claim that social supports attenuate a stress level only when the level is high (Stachour, 1998). Smith(1992) argued that high cardiovascular risk can be attributable to the less social supports. Specifically, the more people have hostility towards others, the less social supports they receive from others, and, in turn, the interpersonal conflict increases cardiovascular disease. Culture is another key component which affects health condition. According to the research on the relationship between culture and health by Triandis, Bontempo, Villareal, Asai and Lucca(1988), it was found that a physical disease incident rate was low in the collectivistic culture compared with in the individualistic culture in case other socio-economic conditions are similar between those cultures. It could be interpreted that since unity and harmony are emphasized more in the collectivistic culture, it provides more social supports as well as reduces competitions and stress level that people experience. Understanding health as a socioculturally-generated entity will contribute to find a way to improve health conditions. It will help us to figure out what an important role societies play in individual health and how societies can help individuals to achieve their optimal health. It would be desirable to expand our view on health by studying more in depth about the relation between health and socio-cultural factors. 

 

1) Cobb, S. (1976). Presidential Address-1976. Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic medicine, 38(5), 300-314.

2) Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological bulletin, 98(2), 310.

3) Jacobson, D. E. (1986). Types and timing of social support. Journal of health and social behavior, 250-264.

4) Smith, T. W. (1992). Hostility and health: current status of a psychosomatic hypothesis. Health psychology, 11(3), 139.

 

5) Stachour, V., & Shapiro, J. (1998). The role of social support in mediating stress and illness.

 

6) Triandis, H. C., Bontempo, R., Villareal, M. J., Asai, M., & Lucca, N. (1988). Individualism and collectivism: Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 323.