Cross-cultural integration of children into the health-care system.

Cultural differences are directly pertinent to the practice of medicine, as they affect the health-care behaviour of families, influence parent-child relationships, and support particular developmental and personality patterns. To deliver optimal medical care tailored to the needs of the individual patient, physicians must be familiar with various cultures and understand and accept the customs, beliefs, and values of the persons who belong to them. Equipped with such understanding, the physician can involve a family co-operatively in its own health care and can help its members to participate to their greater advantage in the health-care system.