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British Gujarati Indian Immigrants' and British Caucasians' Beliefs about Health and Illness

Department of Psychology, University College London, London

Adrian F. Furnham

National Clinical Association Service, London

Background and aims: This study examined cultural differences in beliefs about health and illness to explore differences in younger and older British Caucasians' and British Gujarati Indian immigrants' beliefs about health and illness.

Methods: This study required a matched group consisting of first- and second-generation Gujarati Indian immigrants and native British Caucasians to complete a questionnaire assessing their beliefs concerning health and illness.

Results: Factor analysis of the health beliefs questionnaire identified six clear factors accounting for 36.04% of the variance. Subsequent ANCOVAs conducted on the factor scores, partialling out the demographic differences between the participants, revealed that Gujarati Indian immigrants agreed with items reflecting supernatural explanations of ill health more than indigenous British Caucasian participants. Older Indian immigrants also rated chance-related factors as more important than older Caucasian immigrants. There were no significant differences between the Gujarati Indian immigrants and British Caucasians in terms of attributions made to psychological factors and self-responsibility, social factors and life circumstances, medical treatment and physical vulnerability and the external environment.

Conclusions: Findings are discussed in relation to the model proposed by Helman (2001) and the impact of migration on health beliefs systems; practical implications of the findings are also highlighted.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 51, No. 4, 350-364 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0020764005060851


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