Chronic Illness, Diversity, and Cultural Competence

Dear Colleagues,

There is growing evidence that a significant proportion of people report living with a chronic condition, making long-term illness a major challenge in today’s diverse and multicultural societies. In this context, the diversity and cultural competence of healthcare professionals have been recognized as essential for ensuring patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and improved health outcomes. Given that individuals with chronic conditions require ongoing interactions with healthcare providers, the importance of cultural competence and diversity becomes even more critical.

This Special Issue invites researchers, educators, and scholars to submit original research or review articles exploring the intersections of chronic illness, diversity, and cultural competence. Submissions may address chronic illness in the context of various forms of diversity, including but not limited to cultural and ethnic background, socio-economic status, education, age, sexual and gender identities, lifestyle, and disability. Contributions should focus on diversity and cultural competence or other related competencies and skills, such as structural competence, intercultural communication, cultural awareness, cultural humility, cultural sensitivity, cultural empathy, and cultural intelligence. The submissions should be pertinent to the following healthcare fields:

• Health assessment;
• Medication management;
• Long-term outcomes and adherence to therapy;
• Early diagnosis, ethics, and clinical communication;
• The use of AI technology in healthcare;
• Socio-economic burden;
• Health policy;
• Treatment;
• Training and development of healthcare professionals;
• Working with interpreters and health outcomes.

Prof. Dr. Costas S. Constantinou
Dr. Venetia Sofia Velonaki
Guest Editors

Dr. Monica Nikitara
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.