An Analysis of Cultural Determinants of Health With A Qualitative Approach

In the contemporary world, the study of health has transition from biological to social and cultural studies. Many scholars believe that understanding and defining health is a reflection of one's cultural and social background. The purpose of the present study is to analyze cultural determinants of health.

The research method is qualitative and has been done by structural analysis approach. the method of data collection was interviews with 40 key informants of East Azarbaijan province using purposeful sampling method and theoretical saturation criterion. The data from the interviews were analyzed by Mic Mac software.

The coding of the interview findings revealed that categories such as health nutrition culture, health literacy, consumption pattern modification, sport lifestyle, medical stereotypes, hidden media pressure, the preference of materialistic values to non-materialistic, cultural contradictions, seeking differentiation, and paying to diseases are one of the most important cultural determinants of health in terms of prevalence.

Structural analysis results show that key informants respectively have allocated the highest and lowest priority to health literacy and disease-based rates