Chinese Health Beliefs of Older Chinese in Canada

Abstract

Objectives. This study examines the cultural health beliefs held by older Chinese in Canada. Methods. Chinese surnames are randomly selected from the local Chinese telephone directories. Telephone screening is then conducted to identify eligible Chinese people 55 years of age or older to take part in a face-to-face interview to complete a structured survey questionnaire. Results. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicate that the health beliefs of the older Chinese are loaded onto three factors related to beliefs about traditional health practices, beliefs about traditional Chinese medicine, and beliefs about preventive diet. Education, religion, country of origin, length of residency in Canada, and city of residency are the major correlates of the various Chinese health beliefs scales. Discussion. The findings support the previous prescriptive knowledge about Chinese health beliefs and illustrate the intragroup sociocultural diversity that health practitioners should acknowledge in their practice.

The Meaning of Food amongst Terminally Ill Chinese Patients and Families in Singapore

“…The 'appropriate food' obtained was in this case, in the form of tablets and capsules which were seen as a means to nourishing the healthy 'qi', restoring the normal pattern of health, overcoming the significant side effects of Western medicine 8 and crucially in defeating the disease (Shih 1996, Bowman 2001, Lam 2001, Chen 2001, Payne et al 2008, Lai and Surood 2009). For Mrs. Z and the family, TCM was held to be free of adverse effects and was better for 'clearing the roots' of the disease (Lam 2001).…”

“…For Mrs. Z and the family, TCM was held to be free of adverse effects and was better for 'clearing the roots' of the disease (Lam 2001). It is also believed to help balance the Yin and Yang elements of one's body and exemplifies the coming together of strands of Taoist beliefs and Confucian tenets within local deliberations (Shih 1996, Bowman 2001, Lam 2001, Chen 2001, Payne et al 2008, Lai and Surood 2009.…”

“…They were also aware that quite to the converse, this intervention could cause her harm and discomfort however for the family, the overarching concern remained focused upon meeting their filial duties which they believed took the form of feeding their mother (Garanis-Papadatos and Katsas 1999, Bowman 2001, McClement et al 2003, Chiu 2004, Kwok et al 2007, Ke 2008, Ho et al 2010, Krishna 2011a, 2011b, 2011c. They felt that without nutrition, their mother would effectively starve to death and this would reflect a failing in their filial duties According to Confucian belief, filial piety is essential for one's own well-being and happiness and arises from meeting one's obligations to provide for the material and mental well-being of one's aged parents (Lai and Surood 2009). Such beliefs underlie some of the conundrums faced by families in setting out end of life plans and particularly when contemplating decisions to forgo life sustaining therapies (Kwok et al 2007).…”

Oral health in a convenience sample of Chinese older adults living in Melbourne, Australia

“…Thus, while our data may have limitations, it represents a substantial sample of community-dwelling older adults; we have less reason to believe that this is an unusually healthy group of China-born older adults. In addition, although most participants had immigrated to Australia later in life, it is possible that the selective nature of immigration policies may have created a ''healthy migrant effect'' (Lai 2004;Leung et al 2008), which may have influenced our results.…”

Exploring Aging-in-Place Among Chinese and Korean Seniors in British Columbia, Canada

“…By the same token, in many previous studies on the quality of life, ethnicity has consistently been found to be an important factor mediated by social support at the community level (Lee et al 1996;Noh et al 1994;Wu and Hart 2002). Generally, several factors, such as language barriers, acculturation stress, less leisure time, low utilization of health services, and lack of knowledge and understanding of the existing service system, have been identified as the probable causes of poor quality of life among Asian immigrants in previous studies (Bagley 1993;Lai 2004;Tremblay et al 2006). In the previous studies, however, how different ethnic groups use their local amenities and community resources has been unknown.…”