A focus group study of older Chinese people with CVD patients in the North West of the UK

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for Chinese migrants around the world. Chinese CVD patients rely heavily on their native Chinese language, cultural values and beliefs, which adds challenges for the healthcare providers to offer primary healthcare services with standard protocol. The inappropriate treatment could lead to life loss, mistrust in doctor-patient relationship and heavy burden for healthcare funding. Methods: 28 participants were included for focus group study with the grounded theory methodology. Results: There is considerable misunderstanding among the Chinese community about the role of primary care doctors in the treatment of cardiovascular disease resulting in the variable use of primary care services. Conclusion: Chinese CVD patients or identified risk factors for CVD arguably need closer management, culturally sensitive advice, support and robust follow-up compared to the general population. Doctors and nurses should enhance their practice and give them confidence in their interaction with Chinese patients on the basis of how they think and behave in relation to help seeking.

Approaches for enhancing patient-reported experience measurement with ethnically diverse communities: a rapid evidence synthesis

“…Of the total 86 studies identified from the electronic database searches, 27 studies used quantitative methods via survey, 50 employed qualitative methods and nine employed mixed methods combining surveys and interviews. Of the 50 qualitative studies, 37 (74%) used a single method of qualitative data-collection: individual interviews ( n = 26) [ 14 – 39 ], focus-group discussions (FGD) ( n = 10) [ 40 – 49 ] or group interview ( n = 1) [ 50 ]. Thirteen of the 50 qualitative studies used two or more methods for data collection [ 51 – 63 ] combining individual interviews with FGDs ( n = 9) [ 52 , 53 , 55 – 59 , 63 ], with participant observation ( n = 3) [ 54 , 60 , 62 ], with group interviews ( n = 1) [ 61 ] or with FGDs and a site visit ( n = 1) [ 40 ].…”

“…Bicultural workers supported data collection ( n = 24) [ 14 , 15 , 20 , 21 , 24 , 25 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 37 , 42 – 44 , 46 – 48 , 50 – 53 , 56 , 58 , 61 , 63 ] and data analysis ( n = 12) [ 14 , 15 , 24 , 31 , 33 , 43 , 44 , 47 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 56 ]. Most (86%; 43/50) of the qualitative studies conducted data collection in the respondents’ preferred community language via bicultural workers or interpreters [ 14 , 15 , 17 – 22 , 24 – 35 , 37 – 39 , 41 – 50 , 53 – 56 , 58 – 63 ]. In addition to supporting language and cultural needs, the need for flexible and supportive data collection processes to enable ethnically diverse communities to engage in PREMs was reported in several studies.…”

“…Beyond these five studies, the evidence generated from the reviewed literature was not described in terms of its application. While not being directly applied to create change, 33 studies did provide recommendations for future health system planning to improve experiences among the ethnically diverse community based on their PREMs results [ 14 , 16 , 17 , 19 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 30 , 34 – 39 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 51 – 53 , 57 , 58 , 61 , 65 , 67 , 72 , 80 , 82 , 104 , 105 ]. Areas for action included improving patient-professional communication, understanding of culturally respectful behaviours [ 16 , 23 , 51 – 53 ], access to interpreters [ 16 ] and personalised and culturally relevant patient education [ 20 , 23 , 37 , 40 , 44 , 46 , 51 , 53 , 63 ].…”

Barriers and facilitators to health-care access by older Chinese migrants in high-income countries: a mixed-methods systematic review

“…Many Chinese people hence adopt the belief that TCM and Western medicine are complementary in a specific way; the body and health are also sometimes conceptualised through terms of traditional medicine (Liu et al, 2015;Wood, 2016). However, as TCM is not part of the health-care system in Western countries, some older Chinese migrants have turned to selfmedication or private TCM practitioners for additional treatments while receiving treatments of Western medicine (Pang et al, 2003;Wu et al, 2007;Wood, 2016;Speed et al, 2021).…”

Spirituality and Spiritual Care among Ethnic Chinese Residing in England: Implications for Nursing

“…Ethnic Chinese is one of the largest Asian sub-groups in the UK and the population has doubled in the last 10 years (GOV.UK 2020). They have specific spiritual and cultural beliefs which may impact their overall health (Speed et al 2021;Niu et al 2020). This study explored how ethnic Chinese residing in England perceive spirituality and spiritual care to help nurses respond to their cultural and religious needs.…”