Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T22:02:29.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethnicity and illness behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

I. Pilowsky  and
N. D. Spence
I. Pilowsky*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, South Australia
N. D. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, South Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor I. Pilowsky, Department of Psychiatry, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adlaide, 5000, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The 52-item Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) was administered to 134 general practice patients of Greek, Anglo-Greek, and Anglo-Saxon origin. Responses were scored on 7 dimensions of illness behaviour labelled general hypochondriasis, disease conviction, psychological versus somatic perception of illness, affective inhibition, affective disturbance, denial and irritability. Results of a three-way analysis of variance (ethnicity, age and sex) indicated that Greek patients were significantly more likely to differ from their Anglo-Saxon counterparts on the initial 3 IBQ scales. Compared with the Anglo-Saxon group, the Greek sample showed greater hypochrondriacal concern, were more likely to manifest conviction as to the presence of serious physical disease, and took a more somatic view of illness. Anglo-Greek patients varied from one scale to another in the degree to which their responses resembled the pattern of illness behaviour reported by Greek patients. They were most similar to the latter in their hypochondriacal attitude, and least similar in their psychological perception of illness. Although the IBQ responses to the Greek sample were consistent with patterns described in other studies of Mediterranean cultural groups, it was found that relationships observed between ethnicity and illness behaviour were to some extent dependent upon age and sex.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , August 1977 , pp. 447 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balla, J. I. & Moraitus, S. (1970). Knights in armour: a follow-up of injuries after legal settlement. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 355–361.Google Scholar
Cox, D. (1972). Medico-social problems in the Greek population in Melbourne: social and cultural background. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 879–881.Google Scholar
Croog, S. H. (1961). Ethnic origins, educational level, and responses to a health questionnaire. Human Organization 20, 65–69.Google Scholar
Ellard, J. (1969). The problems of the migrant. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 1039–1043.Google Scholar
Ellard, J. (1970). Psychological reactions to compensable injury. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 349–355.Google Scholar
Fabrega, H. (1975). The need for an ethnomedical science. Science 189, 969–975.Google Scholar
Graham, S. (1956). Ethnic background and illness in a Pennsylvania country. Social Problems 4, 76–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, J. D., Wolff, H. G. & Goodell, H. (1952). Pain Sensations and Reactions. Williams and Wilkins: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Hes, J. P. (1958). Hypochondriasis in oriental Jewish immigrants. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 4, 18–23.Google Scholar
Hes, J. P. (1968). Hypochondrical complaints in Jewish psychiatric patients. Israeli Annals of Psychiatry 6, 134–142.Google Scholar
Mechanic, D. (1968). Medical Sociology. Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Minc, S. (1963). Of New Australian patients, their medical lore and major anxieties. Medical Journal of Australia 1, 681–687.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I. (1969). Abnormal illness behaviour. British Journal of Medical Psychology 42, 347–351.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I. (1971). The diagnosis of abnormal illness behaviour. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 5, 136–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1975). Patterns of illness behaviour in patients with intractable pain. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 19, 279–287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1976 a). Pain and illness behaviour: a comparative study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 20, 131–134.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1976 b). Illness behaviour syndromes associated with intractable pain. Pain 2, 61–71.Google Scholar
Portelli, A. J. & Jones, I. (1969). Mediterranean guts ache. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 717–720.Google Scholar
Ruesch, J., Jacobsen, A. & Loeb, M. B. (1948). Acculturation and illness. Psychological Monographs 62, 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saint, E. G. (1963). The medical problems of migrants. Medical Journal of Australia 1, 335–338.Google Scholar
Skinner, J. C. (1965). Symptom and defence in contemporary Greece: a cross-cultural enquiry. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 141, 478–489.Google Scholar
Sternbach, R. A. & Tursky, B. (1965). Ethnic differences among housewives in psychophysical and skin potential responses to electric shock. Psychophysiology 1, 241–246.Google Scholar
Zborowski, M. (1952). Cultural components in response to pain. Journal of Social Issues 8, 16–30.Google Scholar
Zola, I. (1966). Culture and symptoms: an analysis of patients presenting complaints. American Sociological Review 31, 615–630.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed