Using Cultural Competence Constructs to Understand Food Practices and Provide Diabetes Care and Education

By 2050, > 50% of the U.S. population will consist of people from different cultural backgrounds. The dynamic, growing population shifts in the United States and the changing health status of various cultural, ethnic, and racial groups create exciting challenges for health care professionals. Increasing evidence about culture and health emphasizes the importance of understanding and applying cultural constructs as a part of diabetes care and education. To understand the connections between cultural food practices and diabetes among ethnic and racial groups, cultural competence first must be gained. This article presents a discussion about applying the Campinha-Bacote Model of cultural competency to the task of understanding the relationship between cultural food practices and diabetes.