Essay Sample on Appalachian Culture: Impact on Health & Wellbeing

Introduction

Culture comprises a continuously evolving pattern of ideas, behaviors, and norms that are commonly shared by a certain group of people in society. Appalachia is made of diverse people. Diversity implies a speed in the evolution of the Appalachian people who incorporate a variety of behaviors and customs to their current culture resulting in a new one. Culture has influenced the health of the people who live in Appalachia in several ways.

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To begin with, it is the culture of the Appalachian people to smoke. Approximate twenty percent of the adult people in the region have been established to be smokers. Smoking is more prevalent in the region as compared to any other place in the country. According to health reports in the region, the adults report more cases of feeling physically unhealthy as compared to any other region. A higher percentage of the reported cases are in the rural regions as compared to the urban ones. The above portrays a significant smoking habit among the rural region people as compared to the metro.

Smoking has resulted to a higher mortality rate among rural adults in Appalachia due to smoking-related diseases such as cancer, heart diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, diabetes, among others. According to the study that was carried out by researchers, a disease that was related to smoking accounted for approximately more than half of the life expectance gap difference between the Appalachian people and the rest of the country. Besides smoking, the health situation in Appalachia is worsened by the fact that the adults in the rural areas that form the majority of the smokers experience economic distress.

According to doctors, conditions such as obesity that emanates from their eating habits of cereals and hamburger, smoking, and physical inactivity, have also been normalized and adopted as a culture by the people. As such, the prevalence of heart diseases, diabetes, and high blood pressure is a common occurrence among people. Therefore, the culture of the Appalachian people significantly contributes to health issues in the sense that getting control of their health conditions is difficult due to the above reasons.

Preparedness of the Appalachian People

COVID-19 is among the deadliest pandemics to occur in the current times whose spread has seen a lot of counties falling victim to the impacts of the disease. Just like other people across the world, Appalachian people have also prepared for the effects of COVID-19. The preparedness is meant to protect all sectors of the economy and most importantly the health of the people to prevent them from succumbing to death.

Leaders of the community have formulated policies and implemented them that will ensure the combating of the spread of the disease. Some of the policies include minimization of the social conduct and interaction among people which increases the spread of the disease hence poor health outcomes. Social places in the Appalachia region such as places of worship, sports grounds, learning institutions, and some organizations have been closed down to minimize interaction and social conduct.

Health care facilities and the government in the region have been actively trying to implement all measures by ensuring that victims are identified in time and isolated while receiving the necessary medication in the entire recovery period. Important sectors of the economy involved in the production of the basic needs have been fully funded to run in a bid to take care of the needs of the people, such include the agricultural and energy production sector.