Background: In a wider meaning given by the World heal organization, ‘health culture means a set of cultural beliefs about health and illness that forms. It is the basis for the health seeking and health promoting behaviour; the institutional arrangements within which that behaviour occurs; and the impacts of socio-economic, political and physical context for their beliefs and institutions’. It is opined that even though western medicines are having a high rate of success, it has not been accepted by the majority of the Indian rural people because of their unique and historical health culture. However, some of the western epidemiologists have proved how countryside (rural) people can be convinced to adopt the western medical system, without affecting their inherited health culture and beliefs. Methodology: This paper is prepared reviewing various related literatures and field work experiences of this author. Conclusion: Cultural response to different health problems forms an interacting sub-system within the overall general cultural system. Health culture is an invariable determining factor of the communities’ understanding of health and illness.
Health, Rural, Culture, Public, Medicine, Policy, Behaviour
