Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the interface of a culture with the physical environment; it includes both a population's biological reproductive patterns that result in births and its material production system (technoeconomic system) that produces goods such as food and housing. Population relations with the environment provide energy and resources to sustain human life but that also create exposure to disease. Consequently, cultural-environmental relations affect many aspects of health.
Basic aspects of the infrastructure include food production technologies, transportation facilities, communication systems, utilities (water, electricity, gas, and sewage), industries, and economic systems for the distribution of resources. Human work is basic to infrastructure and economic systems, providing the resources that support existence.
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. Conceptual Framework for Cultural System | |
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Health Assessments | |
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Ecological Assessments |
Developmental norms and ideals; sexual |
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Physical boundaries (mapping) |
surgery |
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Environmental conditions and risks; EPA | |
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standards compliance |
Infrastructure |
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Contamination and sanitation |
Material goods and economic well-being |
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Demography and population structures |
Land and property ownership |
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Ethnic composition and distribution |
Housing and housing assistance |
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Migration, migrants, homelessness |
Transportation and communication |
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Medical and social epidemiology: principal |
systems |
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morbidity, mortality |
Industry, markets, and exchange |
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At-risk groups |
Emergency resources |
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Immunization, vaccination rates, | |
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and programs |
Economics and Work |
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Recreational facilities |
Median household income |
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Work activities and work risks | |
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Nutritional Practices and the Body |
Informal economies and undocumented |
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Concepts of food, diet, and ideal body type |
workers |
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Dietary patterns and restrictions |
Unemployment rates |
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Low-income food support |
Welfare resources |
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Low-birth-weight incidence |
Percentage of families, children, and infants |
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Drug-use patterns |
below poverty level |
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Proportion of individuals without health | |
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Reproduction |
insurance |
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Biocultural profiles: ethnic risk factors, |
Household economies and businesses |
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especially social and genetic | |
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Reproductive rates and patterns |
Family Structures and Roles |
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Sexual practices and prostitution; STD risks |
Gender roles; social relationships |
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and rates |
Attachment patterns |
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Birth control attitudes and practices; beliefs |
Single-parent prevalence |
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about pregnancy |
Adolescent birth rates |
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Birth practices and breast-feeding |
Kinship networks |
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Principal mortality and morbidity rates for |
Domestic violence rates; child abuse cases |
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women and children |
Adult transition patterns |
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Marriage and divorce patterns |
Self-representations; in-group versus |
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Care-provision roles and patterns |
out-group status |
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Values and norms | |
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Community Organization |
Cross-gender relations |
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Group definitions; intracommunity group |
Emotions |
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divisions |
Spirituality and religion, especially health |
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Informal networks |
implications and support systems |
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Community associations |
Cultural event analysis: purposes, activities, |
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Community expertise |
and actors |
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Community structures and groups |
Psychocultural dynamics |
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Community leaders | |
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Political dynamics |
Education |
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Police and criminal justice system activities |
Health education needs and programs |
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Social services |
School health programs |
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Youth organizations and gangs |
Learning styles |
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Community groups with health interests |
School quality |
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Extracommunity relations |
High school graduation and dropout rates |
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Literacy rates; illiterate segments | |
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Health Organization and Infrastructure | |
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Clinics, hospitals, and emergency departments |
Communication |
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Ambulance services |
Home language and dominant language |
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Public health facilities |
competence |
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Public health education and outreach |
Nonverbal communication; social interaction |
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Health coalitions, alliances, and organizations |
rules |
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Social communication: signs, gestures, styles | |
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Organizational Analysis of Health |
Media services |
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Institutions | |
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Business environment |
Health Beliefs and Practices |
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Values and heroes |
History of relations with biomedicine |
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Rites and rituals |
Perceived accessibility of health providers |
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Structural networks |
Health and illness concepts |
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Management style and decision making |
Lay medical beliefs and practices |
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Folk professional sectors and activities | |
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Group Social Psychology |
Explanatory Model; Health Beliefs Model |
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Socialization processes |
Stress management practices |
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Acculturation and intercultural conflict |
Consequently, work influences diverse cultural institutions and health. Work provides resources for purchasing health care and, in the United States, is the primary source of health benefits. Work obligations may preclude seeking health care. Work often constitutes a hazardous place, producing many physical, social, and psychological factors that can compromise health.
Reproductive practices structure population dynamics through fertility rates, which affect group size, health conditions, and population growth. Culture influences demographic structure and population characteristics: sex ratio, age-distributed mortality, fertility and birth rates, morbidity, mortality, population density, and distribution. These factors, in turn, affect many other aspects of health.
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