Health Promotion in Multicultural Populations: A Handbook for Practitioners and Students

Offering both students and practitioners of public health and health psychology an indispensable resource providing not only a wealth of information and examples about specific cultural groups in North America this textbook also provides assessment and implementation guidelines for promoting health and behaviors that optimize health in any cultural community. The authors explore the context of culture, cross-cultural concepts of health, conceptual approaches to multicultural health promotion, health disparities among multicultural populations, and suggestions for planning health promotion for multicultural populations. Hispanic/Latino, African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American, and Pacific Islander populations are discussed as specific populations from a variety of perspectives including terms to define the subgroups within the broader population, historical and demographic characteristics, immigration patterns, health and disease issues and concerns, health beliefs and practices, and considerations when working with these groups. The book concludes with a summary of the major themes from and a discussion about where the field is heading with respect to research and practice in the 21st century.