Abstract
Many retired coal miners who are eligible for care in a black lung treatment enter at little or no cost to themselves do not enter into available programs or discontinue soon after beginning therapy. Reasons for this behavior are related to the prevalent beliefs among Appalachians concerning the course of black lung and the appropriate treatment for it. The miners' health beliefs are clearly at odds with those of the health care providers who work in the centers. Using the concept of explanatory model, popular and professional health cultures are analyzed, focusing on course of disease, sick role, appropriate treatment, and expected outcome. Differences in explanatory models are discussed with regard to implications for the organization and delivery of care to retired coal miners with black lung.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beeson, Paul M., Walsh McDermott, and James B. Wyngaarden, (eds.) 1979 Cecil Textbook of Medicine. Fifteenth Edition. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Friedl, John 1978 Health Care Services and the Appalachian Migrant. Columbus: The Ohio State University Research Foundation.
Kleinman, Arthur 1980 Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ohio Lung Association 1976 The Ohio Coalworkers' Respiratory Disease Program: An Evaluation. Mimeo.
Price, Sylvia Anderson, and Lorraine McCarty Wilson 1978 Pathophysiology: Clinical Concepts of Disease Processes. New York: McGrawHill.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Friedl, J. Explanatory models of black lung: Understanding the health-related behavior of Appalachian coal miners. Cult Med Psych 6, 3–10 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00049467
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00049467