Hodgins Margaret, Millar Michelle, Barry Margaret M
Department of Health Promotion, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Soc Sci Med. 2006 Apr;62(8):1978-90. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.08.052. Epub 2005 Oct 6.
This paper explores the perceptions of illness causation and health inequalities of Travellers, an ethnic minority group who experience considerable social and health disadvantages in Ireland. In order to allow for subjective meanings to emerge, a qualitative methodology with purposive sampling was employed. Participants in the study were invited to respond to a vignette in a focus group setting. Forty-one Traveller women were recruited to the focus groups through community projects or adult education initiatives. The study not only illustrates the complexity of lay perceptions of ill-health and health inequalities, but raises important questions about the prevalence of depression and of domestic violence in the Travelling community. These Traveller women were very willing to discuss the structural factors that contributed to their health status, attributing ill-health to social and environmental factors, such as accommodation, hardship and discrimination. Further, they broadly rejected behavioural explanations of the heart disease described in the vignette. Traveller women's understandings of health and the factors that determine it are deeply embedded in the social context of their lives and their ethnic identity. These findings are discussed in the context of social identity and ethnicity, and contribute to theoretical debates about the role of that identity in recognising inequality. The study revealed that Traveller women see many shortcomings in health service provision. They need service provision to be culturally sensitive and responsive to their needs.
本文探讨了爱尔兰的一个少数民族群体——游民对疾病成因和健康不平等的看法。游民在爱尔兰面临着诸多社会和健康方面的不利处境。为了挖掘主观意义，研究采用了定性研究方法和目的抽样法。研究邀请参与者在焦点小组环境中对一个案例进行回应。通过社区项目或成人教育倡议，招募了41名游民女性参与焦点小组。该研究不仅揭示了外行对健康不佳和健康不平等认知的复杂性，还提出了关于游民群体中抑郁症和家庭暴力患病率的重要问题。这些游民女性非常愿意讨论导致其健康状况的结构性因素，将健康不佳归因于社会和环境因素，如住宿、困苦和歧视。此外，她们普遍拒绝案例中对心脏病的行为学解释。游民女性对健康及其决定因素的理解深深植根于她们生活的社会背景和种族身份之中。这些发现将在社会身份和种族背景下进行讨论，并为关于该身份在认识不平等方面作用的理论辩论做出贡献。研究表明，游民女性认为医疗服务提供存在诸多不足。她们需要具有文化敏感性且能满足其需求的服务提供。
