The way a person understands their own illness depends on many factors like cultural background, education level, health, and level of trust in the healthcare system. Similarly, an understanding of depression varies among cultural and ethnic groups. But there are no studies in Canada that have looked at how minority ethnic groups comprehend their depression.
Ontario researchers recently explored how South Asian women in Toronto understand and explain the causes of their depression—the first and main factor being family and relationship issues, including domestic abuse. Knowing how a person understands the causes of their depression can help guide prevention programs. Also, practitioners and clinicians may be interested in this research because it can help them better design prevention programs for South Asian women.
To get the full story, check out EENet’s new Research Snapshot of the article, “Qualitative cross-sectional study of the perceived causes of depression in South Asian origin women in Toronto,” by Kwame McKenzie, Farah Ahmad, and Samanthika Ekanayake. The article appeared in BMJ Open, vol. 2, no. 1 (2012): 1-7. The Snapshot is available here.
Research Snapshots are brief, clear language summaries of research articles, presented in a user-friendly format. To read EENet’s summaries of other articles, visit www.eenet.ca.