Correcting Misinformation with Patients: Misinformation and cultural competency

The intersection of culture and medical misinformation is a tricky but necessary one to navigate. "Since cultural beliefs around health and illness are an integral part of a patient’s ability to understand and act on his or her doctor’s instructions, efforts to improve health literacy that fail to consider these beliefs are unlikely to fully address the needs of those populations suffering from the highest levels of low health literacy" (Shaw, et al, 2009). Furthermore, medical mistrust can run high in some communities and, rather than ignore it, medical professionals "must endeavor to broaden our understanding of medical mistrust, and shift our emphasis to its ongoing, rather than solely historical, nature" (Jaiswal & Halkitis, 2019). 

The resources listed here provide new ways to think about and address misinformation in relation to cultural competency.