Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 55, Issue 10, November 2002, Pages 1795-1802
Social Science & Medicine

Illness management strategies among Chinese immigrants living with arthritis

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00311-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore arthritis management strategies among Chinese immigrants in Calgary, Canada, and to assess factors, that impact on these strategies. Purposive sampling was used to select 19 Chinese immigrants living with arthritis. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews. The interview data were analyzed according to the following steps: (1) transcribing interview materials, (2) developing codes, categories and themes, (3) theoretical coding, and (4) laying out the theoretical framework. The results of this study describe factors, that impacted on illness management strategies. These include arthritic symptoms, beliefs about arthritis, beliefs about Western medicine based on treatment experience, beliefs about Chinese medicine, perceived barriers to using Chinese or Western medicine and social support. The emerging process of illness management shows that immigrants usually started using self-care remedies, followed by consulting Western physicians, consulting Chinese healers, and then returning to Western medicine. The results illustrate that disease management strategies among Chinese immigrants are impacted by disease, personal and cultural factors. These factors suggest helpful directions to providing culturally sensitive care, which can lead to greater satisfaction and well being for Chinese immigrants with arthritis.

Section snippets

Methods

Due to the exploratory nature of the research question, this was a qualitative study using the grounded theory approach. Grounded theory is an inductive approach that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop a theory or model about basic social processes (Glaser, 1992). It is discovered, developed, and provisionally verified through systematic data collection and analysis of data pertaining to that phenomenon. This approach was chosen as opposed to other qualitative methods because its

Findings

Demographic data, collected from the 19 Chinese immigrants, are included in Table 1. We do not know how many patients were requested to participate and how many refused to participate in the study, as we do not know how many information letters were circulated by Chinese healers, rheumatologists and others.

Illness management strategies emerging in the analysis included self-care remedies, consulting Western physicians, and consulting Chinese doctors. The analysis indicated that factors that

Discussion

Unlike many of the existing illness behavior models which were designed to identify factors underlying utilization of Western medicine (Wolinsky, 1980; Ogden, 1996; Rosenstock, 1990; Schwarzer, 1992; McHugh & Vallis, 1986; Toumishey, 1993; Stewart et al., 1995; Anderson et al., 1985), this substantive theory explains that Chinese immigrants use both Western and Chinese medicine and illustrates the process of continuously evaluating Western and Chinese medicine. The illness management process

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