Chronic Illness and Ethnicity

Abstract

The expectations which both consumers and service providers bring to health care relationships are based on ethnicity and culture, as well as on individual and family characteristics, education and social circumstances. This article looks at the relationship between ethnicity and prevalence of illness; the interplay between ethnicity and social disadvantage; some cultural meanings attributed to illness; and how meanings may affect treatment. Four accounts are given of how two chronic illnesses - asthma and diabetes - may be viewed within the Timorese, Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese communities.