Database of Research on Multiculturalism

The Influence of Ethnicity and Culture on the Caregiver Stress and Coping Process: A Sociocultural Review and Analysis

Author/s: Aranda, María P. Knight, Bob G. | Year: 1997 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: Carers who are CALD, Informal Care

Reference: Aranda, M. P. and B. G. Knight (1997). "The Influence of Ethnicity and Culture on the Caregiver Stress and Coping Process: A Sociocultural Review and Analysis." The Gerontologist 37(3): 342-354.

Key Words:: Latino, carers, coping and stress, CALD carers

Research aim:: The authors review the literature on ethnic minority caregivers and suggest that ethnicity and culture play a significant role in the stress and coping process for Latino caregivers.

Results/Conclusion:: Caregivers of older Latinos face special challenges in the caregiving for individuals at higher risk for specific chronic diseases, who are disabled at earlier ages, and who have more functional disabilities. Ethnicity and culture can also influence the appraisal of stress events, the perception and use of family support, and coping behaviors. Socioeconomic class and minority group status are discussed as additional sources of variation in the caregiver stress and coping model.

Implications:

Cultural Group(s):: Latino

Location of study:: United States

Age group:

Number included in study:: N/A

Type of participants:

Research approach:: Literature review

Type of data:: Literature review

Secondary data sources used:

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Notes:: Not primary research - literature review of previous research

End of Life Care: The Importance of Culture and Ethnicity

Author/s: Clark, K. Phillips, J. | Year: 2010 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: Yes | Topic area/s: High Level Care, Palliative Care

Reference: Clark, K. and J. Phillips (2010) "End of Life Care: The Importance of Culture and Ethnicity" Australian Family Physician 39(4):210-213

Key Words:: Health Services, Palliative Care, CALD, Cultural understanding

Research aim:: This article discusses how cultural diversity may impact care and provides some strategies for the general practitioner when considering the provision of end of life care.

Results/Conclusion:: This article does not attempt to provide GPs with a prescriptive approach to multicultural care, as this would run the risk of stereotyping individuals. Rather, it discusses the barriers to end of life care among different cultural and ethnic groups, and suggests ways in which to improve understanding of different cultural needs in end of life care.

Implications:: Taking the time to understand each patient's unique cultural needs, values and beliefs is the most respectful way of delivering palliative care and facilitating a dignified death.

Cultural Group(s):: CALD

Location of study:: Australia

Age group:

Number included in study:: N/A

Type of participants:: Literature review

Research approach:

Type of data:: Literature review

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Ethnicity and aged care assessment teams in Queensland

Author/s: Davis, C. Wilson, A. McCarthy, S. | Year: 1996 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: Yes | Topic area/s: Service Provision, General CALD

Reference: Davis, C., A. Wilson and S. McCarthy (1996) "Ethnicity and aged care assessment teams in Queensland" Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 20(1): 33-40

Key Words:: Service Provision, older CALD, ACAT,

Research aim:: To examine how functional, medical and psychosocial factors influence the differences in use of community and residential services by Australian-born and ethnic aged persons, all persons (n = 31 737) assessed by aged care assessment teams in Queensland in 1992 and 1993 were surveyed. Subjects were classified as Australian-born, overseas-born in countries where English is the primary language, or overseas-born in countries where English is not the primary language. Factors compared included use of services and residential care both prior to assessment and following assessment, and functional, medical and psychosocial factors.

Results/Conclusion:: The group with non-English-speaking background were more likely to be both younger and underreferred compared to their proportion in the community. They were more likely to be referred for, and more likely to be recommended for, nursing home placement than the English-speaking groups. They were more commonly referred for assessment because of mental deficit problems, carer stress and/or social isolation, more likely to be diagnosed with dementia and diabetes, and less likely to be diagnosed with respiratory disease and vision disorders. That clients of non-English-speaking background are more likely to be recommended for nursing home placement is probably largely because of more advanced disease at the time of referral and therefore more functional dependence.

Implications:: Aged care assessment teams should increase ethnic communities' awareness of their services, particularly of the benefits of earlier referral.

Cultural Group(s):: Not specific to CALD

Location of study:: Queensland

Age group:: Not specified - all ACAT assessments

Number included in study:: 31,737 - ALL ACAT assessments 1992 and 1993 in Queensland

Type of participants:: Queensland ACAT assessment data

Research approach:: Quantitative

Type of data:: Secondary

Secondary data sources used:: Queensland Aged Care Assessment Team data (ACAT), 1992 and 1993

Specific scales or analytical techniques used:: Frequencies by different demographic variables

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Vulnerability to extreme heat and climate change: is ethnicity a factor?

Author/s: Hansen, Alana Bi, Linda Saniotis, Arthur Nitschke, Monika | Year: 2013 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: General Wellbeing

Reference: Hansen, A., L. Bi, A. Saniotis and M. Nitschke (2013). "Vulnerability to extreme heat and climate change: is ethnicity a factor?" Global Health Action 6: 1-7.

Key Words:: climate change, ethnicity, vulnerability

Research aim:: The aim of this article is to investigate the underpinning reasons as to why ethnicity may be associated with susceptibility to extreme heat, and how this may be relevant to Australia's population.

Results/Conclusion:: Social and economic disparities, living conditions, language barriers, and occupational exposure are among the many factors contributing to heat-susceptibility among minority ethnic groups in the United States. However, there is a knowledge gap about socio-cultural influences on vulnerability in other countries.

Implications:: More research needs to be undertaken to determine the effects of heat on tourists, migrants, and refugees who are confronted with a different climatic environment. Thorough epidemiological investigations of the association between ethnicity and heat-related health outcomes are required, and this could be assisted with better reporting of nationality data in health statistics. Climate change adaptation strategies in Australia and elsewhere need to be ethnically inclusive and cognisant of an upward trend in the proportion of the population who are migrants and refugees.

Cultural Group(s):

Location of study:

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Number included in study:: N/A

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Type of data:: Literature review

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Notes:: Not primary research

Introduction: Exploring the Relationships Among Aging, Ethnicity, and Family Dementia Caregiving

Author/s: Hinton, L. Fox, K. Levkoff, S. | Year: 1999 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: Dementia, Carers of CALD Older People, Reserch Methodology

Reference: Hinton, L., K. Fox and S. Levkoff (1999) "Introduction: Exploring the Relationships Among Aging, Ethnicity, and Family Dementia Caregiving" Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry 23(4):403-413

Key Words:: Dementia, Caregivers, Older People, Caregiving

Research aim:: Introduces a set of papers featured in the December 1999 issue of "Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry," which analyzed narratives of caregivers of elders with dementia in Boston, Massachusetts.

Results/Conclusion:: Provides methods shared across the papers includinga multidimensional framework for ethnicity and directions for future research

Implications:

Cultural Group(s):: CALD

Location of study:: United States

Age group:: Not specific - carers

Number included in study:: N/A

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Type of data:: Literature review

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The debate on ethnicity and dementia: from category fallacy to person-centred care?

Author/s: Iliffe, S. Manthorpe, J. | Year: 2004 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: Dementia

Reference:

Key Words:

Research aim:: Positioning paper: We argue that these issues are applicable to all individuals with dementia, independent of apparent ethnicity, and that promotion of cultural competence in service provision should not be relegated to an ethnic minority agenda.

Results/Conclusion:: the experiences of people with dementia and their carers show that the important issues for service providers to consider are language, religious belief and observance, cultural practices (including food and personal care practices) and social support and coping mechanisms (i.e. do not group everyone from a particular ethnicity into a single category or group). We argue that these issues are applicable to all individuals with dementia, independent of apparent ethnicity, and that promotion of cultural competence in service provision should not be relegated to an ethnic minority agenda.

Implications:: The task for health and social care providers is therefore to recognise the diversity of users and to increase access to appropriate quality mainstream person-centred services, rather than to develop segregated or specialized services.

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Number included in study:: N/A

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Research approach:: Positioning paper

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Comparative analysis of dementia and ethnicity in the New South Wales Aged Care Assessment Program: 1996 and 2001

Author/s: Lister, S.; Benson, C. | Year: 2006 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: Dementia

Reference: Lister, S. and C. Benson (2006). "Comparative analysis of dementia and ethnicity in the New South Wales Aged Care Assessment Program: 1996 and 2001." Australasian Journal on Ageing 25(1): 24-30.

Key Words:: dementia, cultural differences in dementia rates

Research aim:: To compare assessment and dementia rates for different client countries of birth in the New South Wales Aged Care Assessment Program (NSW ACAP)

Results/Conclusion:: ACAP assessment and dementia rates for people from several overseas-born groups in this study were significantly lower than those for Australian-born clients. Statistical differences were maintained for 1996 and 2001. Characteristics of those with dementia and born overseas were significantly different from Australian-born clients.

Implications:: Australian-born ACAP clients have higher assessment and dementia rates than many overseas-born groups

Cultural Group(s):: Overseas born, Australia born

Location of study:: New South Wales

Age group:

Number included in study:: N/A

Type of participants:

Research approach:: Quantitative

Type of data:: Secondary

Secondary data sources used:: Aged Care Assessment Program (ACAP) and ABS data

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Social networks, ethnicity and public home-care utilisation

Author/s: Litwin, H. | Year: 2004 | Publication type: Journal article | Peer reviewed: Yes | Topic area/s: Community Care, General Wellbeing, General CALD

Reference: Litwin, H. (2004) "Social networks, ethnicity and public home-care utilisation" Ageing and Society 24(6): 921-939

Key Words:: CALD Older People, Community Care, Israel

Research aim:: This article examines the relationships between support networks, ethnicity and the utilisation of formal care services, taking into account background characteristics and functional health status among 3,403 older people in Israel. Data were drawn from a national survey in 1997 of people aged 60 or more years.

Results/Conclusion:: No association was found between home-care utilisation and a respondent's ethnicity (Arab, Jew, and new Russian immigrant), income or education. The results show that publicly-financed formal care services were utilised more frequently by older-old persons, women, functionally impaired individuals and people embedded in the neighbour-focused and restricted networks (and to a lesser degree, in the diverse and friend-focused networks). Neighbour-focused and restricted network types were characterised by fewer informal support resources at their disposal than the other types. Thus, formal home care was sought more often in cases in which the informal sources of support had less capacity to provide ongoing informal care.

Implications:

Cultural Group(s):: Arab, Jewish and Russian Immigrants in Israel

Location of study:: Israel

Age group:: 60+ years

Number included in study:: 3,403 aged 60+

Type of participants:: Older Israelis who took part in a antional survey in 1997, a sub set of (1) Arab citizens of the State of Israel, (2) post-1990 immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and (3) the majority veteran Jewish population that was born in the area or immigrated before 1990.

Research approach:: Quantitative

Type of data:: Secondary

Secondary data sources used:: National survey of Israelis aged 60 or more years carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1997

Specific scales or analytical techniques used:: Binary logistic regression

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Social support and ethnicity in old age

Author/s: Moriarty, J Butt, J | Year: 2004 | Publication type: Book chapter | Peer reviewed: | Topic area/s: Social Inclusion