Galkin K.A. The concept of health culture: conceptualization of the concept and prospects of sociological and anthropological understanding. Scientific notes of the V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. Sociology. Pedagogy. Psychology. 2023. Vol. 9. No. 3. Pp. 13-26.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the concept of health culture and its modern consideration in anthropological and sociological researches. Based on modern anthropological and sociological articles, the paper examines how the concept of health culture evolves. The prospects of this concept are also analyzed from the point of view of various aspects of its consideration. The article notes that at this stage, the concept of health culture is presented quite separately in many studies on this topic. It is noted at the same time that the important aspects are the consideration of individual characteristics and individual understanding of health by people in the context of different cultures and their differences. It is in the context of values that we consider how the individual cares about his/ her health and positions the meanings and features of health for individuals. At the same time, the very concept of culture as a fundamental and framing health has been replaced by individual meanings of understanding one's health in both anthropological and sociological studies. The focus on the needs and interests of each individual, as well as the ability to use the existing values of certain cultures in relation to the treatment of diseases, is important in modern research that determines the culture of health. From the standpoint of sociological consideration, the main thing in the formation of a health culture are value orientations and the ability to operate with values, as well as independently assess the importance of one's health and, as a consequence, care for one's individual health. The article also identifies the key topics of scientific research and works devoted to the study of health culture and consideration of the peculiarities of understanding this category. Thus, the most significant and important in the study and consideration of the concept of health culture, both in the context of modern medical anthropology and from the point of view of medical sociology, is the orientation to the designation of individual specificity in the experience of the disease or in health-saving practices. At the same time, the very concept of culture as such shifts towards the background, within which there is a development of health care and treatment of the disease itself, minimizing the consequences of the disease. It should also be noted that the most important for medical anthropologists in the analysis of health culture is the study of how the individual meanings of health and the cultural general context are interconnected, as well as views on this cultural general context. The focus of medical sociology is more on the individual himself and his/her interaction with a particular society, which is represented by a combination of culture, economic and social relations. So in the context of such interactions, the emergence of a health-saving culture takes place.