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Health promotion has shifted to recognize the relationship between “individual health related behaviour and the social, political, physical and environment in which behaviour occurs.” These factors are also known as the social determinants of health, a term which is increasing employed in public health dialogue to understand and address the underlying pathways to population health. Although extensive research has been carried out to look at some of these factors and their relationship to health outcomes, there has been minimal research focused on the more nebulous social factors which impact on them, such as cultural norms. Health promotion that looks at health behaviour in isolation, neglecting to understand the social lives of mothers not only in terms of socio-demographic factors (i.e. income, education), but socio-cultural factors (i.e. how they see themselves in these roles), will have difficulty in promoting health effectively. For example, data collected from 161 mothers one month postnatally showed that Australian-born mothers know more about SIDS prevention, yet engage in fewer SIDS preventative practices, whilst overseas-born mothers know less about SIDS prevention, yet engage in more SIDS preventative practices. This suggests that there may be underlying differences in how these mothers understand and conceptualise child health and well being which may be influencing child care practices. By working in partnership with mothers to understand cultural influences, child and family health nurses would be more effective in promoting better child health practices for both Australian and overseas-born women with young children.

Stream: Disability, Health

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Henna Aslam has had 5 years experience working in the area of health and development since completing her degree in Cultural Anthropology. Upon attaining her Master degree in International Public Health in 2003, she began working at the Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), where she has had the opportunity to strengthen her interest in community and early childhood research. Over the past three years, Henna has been extensively involved in the development, design and execution of a NSW Families First funded evaluation of home visiting programs in South Western Sydney and implementation of the MECSH randomized control trial of sustained nurse home visiting.