Abstract
ABSTRACTObjective: British South Asians (BSAs) experience a higher incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) which is not declining in line with the UK national average. Low physical activity levels are likely to contribute to this elevated risk. This study investigated the effectiveness of message framing, cultural sensitivity and their interaction on promoting physical activity among BSAs.Design: One hundred and seventy-nine participants (70 males and 109 females) were randomly allocated to watch one of four films in a 2 (loss vs. gain) × 2 (culturally sensitive vs. non-culturally sensitive) design.Main outcome measures: Measures of self-reported physical activity and behavioural intention were completed at baseline and two-month follow-up.Results: The analysis revealed no main effects for message framing, cultural sensitivity or for the interaction between these factors for self-reported physical activity and behavioural intention.Conclusions: Healthy BSAs appear not to respond to health promotion messages which have been manipulated by message framing or cultural sensitivity. Possible explanations are that despite an increased risk of developing CHD, healthy BSAs may be unwilling to engage in immediate action for a potential future health problem and cultural sensitivity may be irrelevant to a ‘Westernised’ sample. Nevertheless, future research ought to investigate variations of the current intervention by using a larger sample size, targeting a more sedentary population, varying the length and exposure to the intervention in less assimilated groups, clinically symptomatic populations or those at high risk of CHD.
Highlights
British South Asians and coronary heart diseaseBritish South Asians (BSAs) are people of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin residing in the UK
Randomisation checks were performed to ensure participants in the four groups were similar with respect to baseline metabolic equivalent task (MET) scores (METS), age, gender and body mass index (BMI)
No statistically significant differences were found for baseline METS, age or BMI
Summary
British South Asians and coronary heart diseaseBritish South Asians (BSAs) are people of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin residing in the UK. Cardiovascular diseases, in particular diabetes and coronary heart disease (CHD), are at epidemic levels in India and Pakistan with similar causal factors to that of BSAs in the UK, namely unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles (Gupta, Mohan, & Narula, 2016). World Health Organization data states that 19% of all deaths in Pakistan were due to cardiovascular diseases, with no defined strategies to arrest this problem (World Health Organization, 2014) It seems, that the lifestyle of South Asians residing both in the UK and in indigenous countries is similar as well as problematic. Low physical activity levels and gender differences are well documented (Fischbacher, Hunt, & Alexander, 2004) as well as subgroup differences; Muslims are identified as more sedentary compared to Sikhs and Hindus and CHD-related mortality occurs more among Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups (Williams, Nazroo, Kooner, & Steptoe, 2010; Williams, Stamatakis, Chandola, & Hamer, 2011). BSAs would benefit from interventions promoting greater participation in physical activity
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