Improving Patient Preparedness and Confidence in Discussing Advance Directives for End-of-Life Care with Health Care Providers in the United States and Japan.

Background: The low completion rate of advance directives (ADs) has received attention in Japan and the United States, as policy makers and health care professionals face aging populations with multiple comorbidities. Among the barriers to AD planning, cultural values and attitudes appear to be particularly influential. A comparison of culturally distinct societies provides a deeper understanding of these barriers.

Culture, Self, and Medical Decision Making in Australia and China: A Structural Model Analysis.

To explore and compare the influences of individual-level cultural values and personal attitudinal values on the desire for medical information and self-involvement in decision making in Australia and China. A total of 288 and 291 middle-aged adults from Australia and China, respectively, completed an online survey examining cultural and personal values, and their desired level of self-influence on medical decision making. Structural equation modeling was used to test 15 hypotheses relating to the effects of cultural and personal antecedents on the individual desire for influence over medical decision making.

A cultural neuroscience perspective on North Korean strategic culture: .

Given the complexity of the current nuclear age and the absence of work on deterrence under true multipolarity, interdisciplinary models can provide new perspectives on tailored deterrence. Drawing from recent findings in the life sciences, this article offers a cultural neuroscience approach to deterrence decision-making, with special attention given to the ways in which culture interacts with cognition and the security environment to shape behavioral outcomes during conflict. Since North Korea remains largely a "black box" in international relations, a cultural neuroscience perspective can provide valuable insight into the effects of cultural conditioning on perception and cognition within the context of nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula.

Culture and medical decision making: Healthcare consumer perspectives in Japan and the United States.

Objective: Two studies identified core value influences on medical decision-making processes across and within cultures.

Methods: In Study 1, Japanese and American adults reported desired levels of medical decision-making influence across conditions that varied in seriousness. Cultural antecedents (interdependence, independence, and power distance) were also measured.