Researching Cultural Differences in Health

Offers a range of accounts of how people in ethnic minority groups perceive and manage their illnesses. Illnesses discussed include: sickle-cell disorder, mental illness, hypertension, and coronary heart disease.
Significant concerns about the poor health and prevalence of chronic illness amongst a number of ethnic minority populations have led to heightened debates about how best to improve the situation. For some the answer is to see their experiences as part of the general social class inequality in health, but recent evidence questions the extent to which social class can explain the variations in health which ethnic minorities experience. This work offers a range of accounts of how people in ethnic minority groups perceive and manage their illness. Some of the chapters focus on Bangladeshi, and other South Asian groups, as well as Afro-Caribbeans and Irish people. The illnesses discussed include diabetes, hypertension, sickle-cell disorder, mental illness and coronary heart disease. This work should prove reading for those involved in providing health services for ethnic minorities, lecturers and students in medical and nursing education as well as those studying sociology and social administration.