Cultural consonance and arterial blood pressure in urban Brazil

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 527 - 540
• Main Authors: Dressler, William W., Balieiro, Mauro C., Ribeiro, Rosane P., Ernesto Dos Santos, José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2005; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Social Science & Medicine
• Subjects: Adult; Arterial hypertension. Arterial hypotension; Biological and medical sciences; Blood and lymphatic vessels; Blood Pressure; Blood Pressure - physiology; Brazil; Cardiology. Vascular system; Clinical manifestations. Epidemiology. Investigative techniques. Etiology; Cultural aspects; Cultural Characteristics; Cultural consonance; Cultural consonance Blood pressure Cultural models Brazil; Cultural Identity; Cultural models; Culture; Ethnographic research; Female; Group behaviour; Health; Humans; Individual and society; Individual behaviour; Life Style - ethnology; Lifestyle; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Miscellaneous; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Residence Characteristics; Risk Factors; Social Change; Social Conformity; Social sciences; Social Support; Urban areas; Urban Health; South America; Brazil; America; Cultural consonance; Brazil; Cultural models; Blood pressure; Human; Hypertension; Urban environment; Cardiovascular disease; Arterial pressure; Models; Hemodynamics; Social aspect; Public health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.12.013

In previous research in Brazil, we tested the hypothesis that cultural consonance is associated with arterial blood pressure. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals are able to approximate in their own behaviors the prototypes for behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Individuals who had higher cultural consonance in the domains of lifestyle and social support had lower blood pressures. The aim of the current research was to replicate and extend these findings. First, a more extensive cultural domain analysis was carried out, improving the description of cultural models. Second, more sensitive measures of cultural consonance were developed. Third, data were collected in the same community studied previously. The following findings emerged: (a) cultural domain analysis (using a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques) indicated that cultural models for these domains are widely shared within the community; (b) the associations of cultural consonance in these domains with arterial blood pressure were replicated; and, (c) the pattern of the associations differed slightly from that observed in earlier research. This pattern of associations can be understood in terms of macrosocial influences over the past ten years. The results support the importance of long-term fieldwork in anthropology.