Ethical issues in health interventions across contexts and cultures

Abstract

Ethics is a part of every public health intervention. There are ethical issues to be considered by the interveners relating to the culture or setting of the intervention and who will be the representative or culture-broker for the recipients of the intervention. Ethics is a key consideration in mapping out the nature of the intervention, and method(s) to be used in implementing it, including participant participation. It is essential that recipients of the intervention have input into the intervention’s design, analysis, and evaluation. The working relationship between interveners and participants must be one of ongoing trust and openness as well as sharing information. All interventions create change. How much change and its impact on cultural values is a critical decision in determining the success of the intervention. The degree of success or failure of the intervention will be determined by the degree to which the intervention is cost-effective, replicable, generalizable, and useful.