Nutrition intervention in ethnic minority groups

Abstract

Development of effective intervention strategies to meet the needs of people with ethnic minority origins is dependent on two factors: an understanding of the modifiable risk factors which can form the basis of intervention; an understanding of the relevant health behaviours so that appropriate strategies can be designed. The present paper briefly reviews the evidence concerning the part that nutritional and dietary factors play in the aetiology of the observed patterns of disease in these groups and the limitations of the data as a basis for intervention. Consideration is also given to the available information concerning factors influencing health behaviour (particularly eating behaviour) and the applicability of commonly-used models of behaviour change to people of ethnic minority origin. Finally, the results of nutrition intervention programmes will be examined with a view to identifying lessons for the future. Ethnic minority groups: Intervention strategies: Modifiable risk factors: Health behaviourLarge-scale migration into the UK from non-European countries has been primarily a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century, and the current composition of the population reflects the successive waves of migration from different locations. Not only the locations, but also the stimulus to migration, have varied during these 50 years. The impetus for migration has been both a 'pull' and 'push' phenomenon. Initial arrivals were invited to help meet manpower shortages after the Second World War and to rebuild Britain. Subsequent groups were responding to changing situations in their home countries that made a move to the UK seem attractive; for example: the changes in the New Territories in the 1960s which stimulated the migration of many Hong Kong Chinese to the UK and fuelled the growth of the Chinese restaurant trade; the Bangladesh War; the activities of Idi Amin and the driving out from East Africa of many families of South Asian origin. The reasons for relocation, the continuing ties with the country of origin and orientation towards the future, whether these immigrants see themselves as sojourners or new citizens, clearly have implications for many aspects of lifestyle choice and behaviour, including eating habits and diet.These patterns of migration and other social factors are reflected in the profiles of the different groups within the UK population. As Table 1 indicates, the proportion over retirement age is lower in all groups than in the white population, while about half the population of Bangladeshi origin in the 1991 census were aged < 15 years. It is also increasingly important to take into account inter-generational differences in these groups. In the 1991 census more than half those who were of black Caribbean origin and about one-third of those of Indian origin had been born in the UK (Warnes, 1996). With > 1·5 million people representing the second and third generation in these ethnic groups, the need to understand the processes which underlie their experience of health and disease ...

Barriers and facilitators of dietary sodium restriction amongst Bangladeshi chronic kidney disease patients

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Diets of minority ethnic groups in the UK: influence on chronic disease risk and implications for prevention

“…9). Poor iron status has been widely reported among women of South Asian origin in the UK and has been linked to low birthweight in their offspring, which may increase the risk for poor health in future life (Thomas 2002).…”

Community energy balance: A framework for contextualizing cultural influences on high risk of obesity in ethnic minority populations

“…However, ecological frameworks developed for specific application to socioculturally distinctive and often socially disadvantaged population groups are relatively scarce, especially frameworks that define cultural contexts in ways that include structural variables (Krieger, 2001;Kumanyika et al, 2007). The tendency is to focus on culturally influenced attitudes, values, and norms related to eating, physical, and body image that might predispose individuals to obesity, to be addressed in specially-designed, "culturally adapted" interventions (Caballero et al, 2003;Flynn et al, 2006;Klesges et al, 2010;Kumanyika, 2010a,b;Kumanyika et al, 2003;Lindberg and Stevens, 2007;Osei-Assibey et al, 2010;Paradis et al, 2005;Teufel-Shone, 2006;Thomas, 2002;Whitt-Glover and Kumanyika, 2009). …”