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Culturally Appropriate Care

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Adolescent Nutrition

Abstract

Culture may be one of the most important influences on nutritional and exercise patterns and is therefore a critical determinant of adolescent nutritional health. Nutritional health care for adolescents cannot be effectively delivered without a thorough understanding of their cultural context. To complicate matters, culture is always changing and adolescents are often the drivers of these changes, which means that there may be cultural differences between adolescents and their caregivers which affect the nutritional health of the whole family. This chapter will begin with an overview of several cultural elements that have a particularly high impact on adolescent nutritional health, including traditional beliefs about nutrition and health, gender roles, body image, general functioning with the health care system, and acculturation. Subsequently, the chapter will discuss how providers can increase their cultural awareness of their patients and families as they obtain nutritional histories, optimize communication with families, and develop culturally appropriate management plans for each adolescent.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Maya Michelle Kumar

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  1. Maya Michelle Kumar
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Correspondence to Maya Michelle Kumar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Yolanda N. Evans

  2. Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Alicia Dixon Docter

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Kumar, M.M. (2020). Culturally Appropriate Care. In: Evans, Y.N., Dixon Docter, A. (eds) Adolescent Nutrition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45103-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45103-5_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45102-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45103-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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