Assumptions about culture in discourse on ethnic minority health

Authors

  • Kirsten Jaeger Aalborg University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.v10i2.141

Keywords:

health disparities, ethnic minority patients, culture discourse, health professionals, Denmark

Abstract

This paper is interested in the way the concept of culture is deployed in documents aimed at investigating, informing on and promoting aspects of ethnic minority health. Within a health-political discourse focusing increasingly on individual lifestyles, ethnic minority health became subject to increased political and professional interest in the last decades of the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Analysis of the discourse on ethnic minority health emerging in five texts addressing health professionals shows that the culture of ethnic minority citizens is primarily seen as contributing to low levels of knowledge about health and to adverse health behavior. Thus, the texts present cultural beliefs and practices as contributing to the high prevalence of lifestyle diseases among ethnic minority population groups. The analysis, however, demonstrates that a more nuanced discourse is evolving, taking the complexity of the culture concept into account. In accordance with Danish health-political priorities, the most recent text analyzed in this study promotes an individualistic approach to both ethnic minority and Danish ethnic majority citizens.

Author Biography

  • Kirsten Jaeger, Aalborg University
    Kirsten Jæger is currently working as an associate professor at Aalborg University in Denmark. Her research interests include intercultural health communication, research in health professions and ethnic minority health.

Published

2014-03-11

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Jaeger, K. (2014). Assumptions about culture in discourse on ethnic minority health. Communication and Medicine, 10(2), 141-151. https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.v10i2.141

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