Assessing cultural intelligence among health education specialists

Abstract

Over the past three decades, cultural competence has been widely promoted in the health disciplines, including in health education and promotion, as a tool to address health disparities and promote health equity among diverse populations. Cultural intelligence (CQ), or the individual’s capability to adjust to cultural situations based on multiple factors including cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural characteristics, can be another useful tool when addressing the needs of diverse groups. The goal of this study was to assess the level of CQ among health education specialists and its relationship with cultural competence skills (CCS) among members of this group. Five hundred and forty randomly selected health education specialists in the USA completed an online survey. The survey included questions to assess CQ, CCS and demographic information. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. Results from the study showed that there was a significant variation in CQ among health education specialists based on race/ethnicity, education, the percentage of cultural/racial/ethnic diverse people they serve, and participation in professional development training. There was also a positive correlation between CQ and CCS, and between each of the CQ capabilities and CCS. Finally, both CQ metacognitive and cognitive capabilities were significant predictors of the overall CCS score. Findings from this study showed that CQ is associated with CCS among health education specialists. The results of the study suggest that health education specialists should consider CQ a useful tool with which to increase CCS.