Comment the following post. Substantive comments should be scholarly, probing, e
ID: 125866 • Letter: C
Question
Comment the following post. Substantive comments should be scholarly, probing, extend the conversation by beginning a dialogue, and continue exploring the concepts
The Philippines is divided into two separate worlds: the city of Manila and the rest of the country. These two worlds are in sharp contrast to each other. The city of Manila is dirty, crowded, and busy. The rest of the country is much more clean, open, and relaxed. This means that the life of someone living in Manila is much different than the life of an average Filipino. However, both people do have many core beliefs and practices in common.
Filipinos believe in a tight family unit. Each member of the family has established roles that they follow. Filipino children are taught to respect their parents and to value their advice. Outside of the family, Filipinos are extremely independent and free thinkers. They understand the value that every person can offer and do not see a person’s sex or age as a reason to dismiss their opinion. Women are seen as equals to men; Filipino women do not need to protest in order to be heard. Filipinos love to get together for parties; they will find almost any excuse to have a party. The vast majority of Filipinos are Catholic. This is because Spain had occupied the Philippines for a very long time a few centuries ago (Senkotiros Arnis). Filipinos typically eat lots of vegetables and rice. They will also eat fish and on special occasions they will eat meat (Food In Every Country). The county is made up of hundreds of islands so fishing is a common method of gathering food. Due to having a healthy diet and a healthy family life, Filipinos are typically in good shape. I used to live in the Philippines for five years in the mid-1990’s. During my time there I cannot remember a single time that I saw an obese Filipino.
For work most Filipinos work in the service industry; the next most common industry is agriculture (WHO). Due to a very low average wage, many Filipinos will travel overseas to find work as laborers. The Middle East is a very popular place for Filipinos to go for work. They will send the majority of their wages back to their family in the Philippines (Sicat,G, Philstar Global). For those Filipinos who remain in the country, their method for getting to work varies depending on where they live or what they do for work. For those Filipinos that work in the fields, they will walk to work, but for those Filipinos that work in the city, they will use public transportation to get to and from work. Filipinos are hard workers and a typical day involves getting up early, going to work until sundown, and coming back home late at night. In a family unit, there is almost always a parent or adult that stays at home to take care of the kids.
Filipinos do not consume much alcohol. According to the World Health Organization, in 2010 only 1.9% of Filipinos reported consuming 60 grams or more of pure alcohol in the past month (WHO). However, Filipinos make up for that by consuming cigarettes; 28% of Filipinos smoke (Philippine Statistics Authority). The most shocking statistic regarding health risk factors in the Philippines is the drastic increase in HIV cases recently. From 2010 to 2016, the Philippines saw a 140% increase in HIV cases. The vast majority of these cases have occurred in homosexual and transgender individuals (Philstar Global). In 2003, only 1.2% of Filipinos used condoms during intercourse during their life; in 2016, that percentage increased to 50% (NCBI).
The typical Filipino who lives in Manila will start their day before sunrise by leaving their aluminum covered shack where they live, getting a ride on dirty, polluted public transportation to the business where they work, walking around homeless people to get their workplace, working a full day until sundown, and then using public transportation to get home where they eat with their family using electrical lights hanging from their metal roof.
The typical Filipino who lives outside of Manila also starts their day early, but due to a lack of electricity, they will usually wake up with the sun. They eat breakfast with their family and walk to the fields where they spend the entire day working the fields, but they will usually take a nap in the afternoon when the sun is the hottest. When the sun goes down they will go home and eat with their family. They do not stay up late though and will usually be asleep quite early compared to the people who live in Manila.
Explanation / Answer
Comment on the research activity:
The above research work describes how lifestyle patterns, cultural patterns, and environmental factors affect the short-term and long-term health of Filipinos.
Environment (areas of living) influences the health of a community:
Even though Filipinos have common core beliefs and exhibit common cultural behaviours, the place of living in Manila is totally different from the rest of the Philippines. As a result, Manila has a risk for contraction of many diseases and infections due to their untidy and polluted environment.
Culture and health:
Social interactions and health:
Culture influences the health of an individual to a great extent. It establishes and maintains behaviour patterns within a community and influences how one interacts within a society, the nature of families, the roles, and responsibilities of each family members, etc. Therefore, cultural patterns play a very important role in maintaining social status of every person in a group. For example, Filipinos not only have close extended family knit but also they are open-minded. Consequently, being able to freely interact with others and solve their problems effectively, Filipinos have less stress-related problems like depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc.
Diet patterns and health:
In the same way, cultural behaviour affects dietary patterns in a community which in turn influences its health. For instance, by having a healthy diet with vegetables, rice, and fish as a staple food, Filipinos have less nutritional deficiencies and less likely to suffer from diet-related problems.
Work patterns and health:
The type and amount of work one does affect his health status. As an example, if one works in a tobacco industry, he is more prone to the consequences of tobacco-related problems due to exposure to tobacco, peer compulsion to use it, etc. As Filipinos are hard workers, they are less likely to suffer from sedentary illnesses like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, etc.
Behaviour patterns and health:
Behaviour affects health in many ways. Negative behaviours like smoking, alcoholism, tobacco addiction, drug abuse adversely affect health of a person whereas positive behaviour patterns like doing exercise, good diet, doing yoga, etc. promote health. In this research, although Filipino do not consume alcohol, their smoking habits and sexual patterns pose a greater risk of contracting many diseases like lung problems (lung cancer) and sexually-transmitted diseases (HIV, etc.).
By learning a specific community we can analyse how its culture, lifestyle and behaviour patterns promote and/or worsen health status the people living there and their neighbours.