The Health Consequences of Cultural Consonance: Cultural Dimensions of Lifestyle, Social Support, and Arterial Blood Pressure in an African American Community

Cultural dimensions of health and behavior have been difficult to study because of limited theoretical and methodological models linking the cultural, the individual, and the biological. We employ a cognitive theory of culture to understand culture and health in an African American community in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American anthropologist 2000-06, Vol.102 (2), p.244-260
Main Authors: Dressler, William W., Bindon, James R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American culture
African American studies
African Americans
Behavior
Black communities
Black people
Blacks
Blood pressure
Brazilian culture
Cognition
Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore
Communities
Consonance
Cultural anthropology
Cultural studies
Culture
Disease risk
Ethnology
Health
Health behavior
Life styles
Lifestyle
Lifestyles
Social support
Traditional and modern medicine
public health
Traditional sciences and medicine
U.S.A
Way of life
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Summary:Cultural dimensions of health and behavior have been difficult to study because of limited theoretical and methodological models linking the cultural, the individual, and the biological. We employ a cognitive theory of culture to understand culture and health in an African American community in the southern United States. First, cultural consensus analysis is used to test for shared cultural models of lifestyles and social supports within the community. Then, the theoretical and operational construct of "cultural consonance" is used to assess the degree to which individuals behave in a way consistent with cultural models. Findings indicate that cultural consonance in lifestyle and social support combine synergistically in association with blood pressure. These associations of cultural consonance and health are not altered by taking into account a variety of other variables, indicating an independent association of cultural dimensions of behavior with health status. Implications of these results for culture theory are discussed.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.2000.102.2.244