Can cultural competency reduce racial and ethnic health disparities? A review and conceptual model

This article develops a conceptual model of cultural competency’s potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, using the cultural competency and disparities litera-ture to lay the foundation for the model and inform assessments of its validity. The authors identify nine major cultural competency techniques: interpreter services, recruitment and retention policies, training, coordinating with traditional healers, use of community health workers, culturally competent health promotion, including fam-ily/community members, immersion into another culture, and administrative and orga-nizational accommodations. The conceptual model shows how these techniques could theoretically improve the ability of health systems and their clinicians to deliver appropri-ate services to diverse populations, thereby improving outcomes and reducing dispari-ties. The authors conclude that while there is substantial research evidence to suggest that cultural competency should in fact work, health systems have little evidence about which cultural competency techniques are effective and less evidence on when and how to implement them properly. With minority Americans expected to comprise more than 40 percent of the U.S. population by 2035 and 47 percent by 2050 (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1996), addressing their health needs has become an increasingly visible publi