Culturally Responsive Health Promotion: Community Voices in Diet and Physical Activity Interventions
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 December 2026 | Viewed by 22
Special Issue Editors
Interests: patient perspectives; shared decision-making; community-based participatory research; dissemination and implementation studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, titled “Culturally Responsive Health Promotion: Community Voices in Diet and Physical Activity Interventions.”
Diet and physical activity interventions are critical to preventing chronic disease and promoting overall wellbeing. Nevertheless, many traditional health promotion programs often rely on a one-size-fits-all approach and overlook the contextual factors that determine health behaviors and shape outcomes.
This Special Issue focuses on the different contextual factors that influence health behaviors and outcomes, with a focus on diet and physical activity program outcomes. By centering the voices of underrepresented individuals and communities, the aim of this collection is to advance the field from cultural awareness to active cultural responsiveness, emphasizing co-design, adaptation, and equity-driven implementation that facilitate program effectiveness.
Moreover, the larger aim is to advance our understanding of how different contextual factors (including but not limited to cultural, linguistic, and faith-based factors) influence the design, delivery, and outcomes of health promotion programs. The topic aligns with the Healthcare journal’s focus on preventive healthcare, social determinants of health, and health-lifestyle behaviors, as well as with the journal’s broader commitment to improving quality of care and healthcare accessibility. This Special Issue contributes to the evidence base on how culturally appropriate approaches can reduce health disparities and improve wellbeing across diverse populations.
Furthermore, this Special Issue aligns with Healthcare’s emphasis on real-world implementation and health policy relevance. The contributions will provide insights into how community-engaged and culturally adapted models of health promotion can be operationalized within healthcare systems and public health programs.
For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: empirical research, systematic reviews, case studies, and conceptual or theoretical papers that illuminate how diet and physical activity interventions can be meaningfully adapted to suit the unique and varied needs of diverse populations and improve health outcomes.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Betty Chewning
Guest Editor
Dr. Ejura Salihu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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.
Keywords
- culturally responsive care
- health promotion
- community engagement
- diet and nutrition
- physical activity or exercise
- health equity
- social determinants of health
- cultural adaptation
- faith-based interventions
- preventive healthcare
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