Australia's population as estimated at 30 June 1997 was 18.5 million of which 23.3 percent were born overseas. People from non-English speaking countries account for 14.2 percent of the Australian population. The 1996 Census shows that 2.6 million in Australia speak a language other than English at home. Therefore, no one can deny that Australia's society is characterised by cultural and linguistic diversity. In this context, migrant health services, and policies and the needs of people from different cultural backgrounds in the area of health have been addressed since the early 1980s. This thesis draws attention to the concept of 'health' as a fundamental dimension embedded in the area of health care and its related policies, services, programs, and health instruments. This current study questions the idea of universality in the concept of 'health' which suggests that a certain meaning and construction of health can be applied to any culture and society. For this purpose, a qualitative study was designed to explore the concept of health within a group of Iranians in Australia and to examine the appropriateness of the aspects and constructs of health identified in the SF-36, a self-report health status questionnaire developed in the United States, for an Iranian population. The methodology used in this research sought to collect qualitative data with a sample of 21 Iranians- 10 females, and 11 males. The NUD.IST program was used to organise and manage the data for the first time in the Persian language. Findings from the research provided evidence of the ways a sample of Iranians understood health and its embedded dimensions. The themes that emerged from the transcripts as significantly reflecting participants' conceptualisation of health included harmony, health as a concept which is both emotional and physical; integrated, spiritual aspect of health; tranquillity, physical and emotional aspects of health; social and familial relationships; and absence of disorder. Using these themes, a framework consisting of the components of health was developed. The components of the framework include holistic, spiritual, dualistic, social, operational, oppositional, and comparative and relative dimensions. Findings provide evidence which supports the assumption that a group of Iranians have certain views of 'concepts of health'. The results from the research provided evidence that some of the items and constructs relating to health included in the SF-36 seem to be problematic when administered to an Iranian population. The findings of the thesis suggest that a qualitative inquiry into Iranians' discourse of health and its dimensions should be made with an Iranian group before administering an instrument such as the SF-36. Analysis of findings suggests a number of recommendations and modifications when the SF-36 is translated from English into Persian and administered to a group of Iranians.

This study is about young people (age 11-16) with diabetes. Based on fieldwork in a paediatric diabetes centre in Scotland, it describes the ways diabetes is lived and done by young people, their health carers and insulin pumps. This enactment is contrasted with other ways of doing diabetes, as observed on short fieldwork trips to paediatric centres in Brussels, Gothenburg and Boston. I explore the dynamics of diabetes care on two levels. I consider the interaction between health carers and patients. Comparative data from various paediatric centres make apparent how culturally and socially informed approaches towards adolescence, health and illness shape both care practices and patients' experiences, resulting in different medical outcomes. Concretely in the Scottish centre, a non-hierarchical holistic care approach by health carers emphasizing quality of life over health, informs the young people's perspective on diabetes. Being a free adolescent takes priority over managing diabetes, with the results of ill health and possible future complications. The existing dynamics in this care framework change as a third actor enters the scene: the insulin pump, a pager-sized technological device continuously attached to the body. I explore the balancing act between young people and their pumps. As the adolescents actively engage with their pumps not to search for better health but rather to pursue a better quality of life, the guiding question becomes: how can a technological device for insulin injection double as a tool towards a desired identity and a different illness? This work then, can be read as a concrete case study of how a uniform technological device is embedded and used in a specific cultural and social context. It can also be read as an argument for a re-orientation of paediatric diabetes care in the Scottish centre: care centred on collaboration and inclusion rather than focused on merely containing underlying conflict (between adults and adolescents, diabetes and life, health and quality of life). Centres in Brussels, Gothenburg and Boston, and the insulin pump concretely, show how collaboration can lead to good health and quality of life. To leave us to wonder: is 'doing diabetes differently' synonymous with 'doing a different diabetes'?