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Ethnicity and primary care. A comparative study of doctor-patient relationship, perceived health, symptomatology, and use of general practitioner services by Asian and white patients, and the Bradford general practitioners' attitudes towards these patients.

Britain's Asians are a young population and their socio-economic
status is low, with racial disadvantage in housing, employment,
education and health. Research on their health has usually not
been conducted in its socio-economic and demographic context and
there is little on their use of primary care. Three studies were
conducted to investigate their relationship with primary care in
Bradford. A study of general practice attenders of white/British,
Pakistani and Indian origin confirmed the demographic and
socio-economic differences between the groups. The former had
higher rates of alcohol and cigarette consumption. For Pakistanis
and Indians, fluency and literacy in English was poor. Ethnic and
linguistic match between doctor and patient was more important in
patients' choice of doctor than the doctor's sex. Differential
employment status of Asian and white/British accounted for some of
the differences in health. A study of general practice attendance
showed similar rates of surgery consultations between Asians and
Non-Asians; the latter made greater use of domiciliary services.
Both these studies were conducted in an inner Bradford health
centre with an Asian male, a white male and a white female doctor.
Bradford GPs were found to perceive that Asian patients made
greater use of surgery and domiciliary consultations; attended
more often for trivial complaints; and had lower compliance rates
than Non-Asians. These perceptions were not supported by objective
data. Better qualified GPs had a smaller, and Asian doctors had a
greater proportion of Asian patients on their lists. Research, and
action on Asians' health, needs to take account of their poorer
socio-economic status. / Yorkshire Regional and Bradford District Health Authority.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/3571
Date January 1989
CreatorsAhmad, Waqar I-U.
ContributorsBaker, Mark R., Kernohan, Elizabeth E.M.
PublisherUniversity of Bradford, Postgraduate School of Studies in Biomedical Sciences
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, doctoral, PhD
Rights<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.

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