ABSTRACT
This chapter presents patterns of health-related behavior and patterns of utilization of health services. Seeking medical help and health-related behavior are both socially shaped, learned through the process of socialization and subject to social norms, pressure, and control, like any other form of human behavior. The chapter looks at the social distribution of four forms of health behavior in rural China: cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, nutrition, and the utilization of health services. The patterning of each behavior by age, gender, and social class is examined to the extent enable people by the available data. Cigarette smoking is a social, learned behavior and is thus socially patterned. For women, social control and the cultural definition of acceptable behavior for women constrain smoking until later in life. In all societies, utilization of health services is greatly influenced by both cultural attitudes and structural factors. Cultural perceptions also attribute priorities to different health problems and social groups when help is sought.
