Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;23(6):476-481.
doi: 10.1089/pop.2019.0179. Epub 2020 Jan 13.

How Do You Build a "Culture of Health"? A Critical Analysis of Challenges and Opportunities from Medical Anthropology

Katherine A Mason  1 , Sarah S Willen  2 , Seth M Holmes  3   4 , Denise A Herd  5 , Mark Nichter  6 , Heide Castañeda  7 , Helena Hansen  8
Affiliations

How Do You Build a "Culture of Health"? A Critical Analysis of Challenges and Opportunities from Medical Anthropology

Katherine A Mason et al. Popul Health Manag. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Action Framework aims to "make health a shared value" and improve population health equity through widespread culture change. The authors draw upon their expertise as anthropologists to identify 3 challenges that they believe must be addressed in order to effectively achieve the health equity and population health improvement goals of the Culture of Health initiative: clarifying and demystifying the concept of "culture," contextualizing "community" within networks of power and inequality, and confronting the crises of trust and solidarity in the contemporary United States. The authors suggest that those who seek to build a "Culture of Health" refine their understanding of how "culture" is experienced, advocate for policies and practices that break down unhealthy consolidations of power, and innovate solutions to building consensus in a divided nation.

Keywords: anthropology; culture of health; health equity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Mason was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University (2013–2015), and is a consultant on the ARCHES project, which is funded by RWJF. Dr. Willen is Principal Investigator (PI) of RWJF Grant # 74898 “Investigating conceptions of health equity and barriers to making health a shared value” (ARCHES | the AmeRicans' Conceptions of Health Equity Study). Dr. Holmes was a RWJF Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University (2009–2011). Dr. Nichter was a core member of the RWJF funded Tobacco Etiology Research Network (TERN) and served on the RWJF National Advisory Board for the Health & Society Scholars Fellowship, 2011–2016. Dr. Herd received the RWJF 2000 Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Award, served as mentor for the RWJF Developing Leadership in Substance Abuse Prevention, and was PI on 2 RWJF funded projects (Substance Abuse Policy Research Grant on Alcohol-Related Social Movements in Inner City Communities and Images of Alcohol, Drugs, and Violence in Rap Music). Dr. Castañeda is a consultant on the RWJF-funded ARCHES project. Dr. Hansen was a RWJF Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University (2009–2011), and a RWJF Health Policy Investigator Awardee (2014–2018).

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Evidence for Action: Making Health a Shared Value. https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/funding-opportunities/2018/evidence-for-... Published 2018. Accessed October12, 2018
    1. Mariner WK, Annas GJ. A culture of health and human rights. Health Aff (Millwood) 2016;35:1999–2004 - PubMed
    1. Weil AR. Defining and measuring a culture of health. Health Aff (Millwood) 2016;35:1947–1947 - PubMed
    1. Plough AL, ed. Knowledge to action: accelerating progress in health, well-being, and equity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017
    1. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Moving Forward Together: An Update on Building and Measuring a Culture of Health. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1aK2eXrzqg&feature=youtu.be Published 2018. Accessed October12, 2018

Publication types