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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health

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01-07-2007 | Original paper

“We are out of balance here”: a Hmong Cultural Model of Diabetes

Authors: Kathleen A. Culhane-Pera, Cheng Her, Bee Her

Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health | Issue 3/2007

Abstract

A Hmong cultural model of type 2 diabetes has not been described. We analyzed 20 group discussions during 21 group visits over 1 year with 39 Hmong adults with type 2 diabetes in order to describe a model that underlines their discussions. These Hmong adults attribute their diabetes to their refugee experience. They do not fit with the food, activity, weather, or community in the United States. Consuming sugar, salt, fat, and chemicals and then not sweating them out of the body, combined with emotional losses of being refugees, the participants feel they are out of balance. And being out of balance, they develop diabetes. The participants interpret biomedical information, community experiences, and personal sensations of diabetes in terms of a traditional health model of balance and in the context of refugee loss of place. Throughout their discussions, the shared suffering of their personal experiences of diabetes was evident. This cultural model may help providers implement diabetes treatment and prevention programs.

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Title: “We are out of balance here”: a Hmong Cultural Model of Diabetes
Authors: Kathleen A. Culhane-Pera
Cheng Her
Bee Her
Publication date: 01-07-2007
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers
Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Issue 3/2007
Print ISSN: 1557-1912
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1920
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9029-3

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

“We are out of balance here”: a Hmong Cultural Model of Diabetes

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Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

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