Paper short abstract:

A focused ethnography to explore perceptions of chronic disease risk and engagement with preventive health care by migrants from Sub Saharan Africa in Glasgow, Scotland. Critical theory will help to draw links between broader structural forces and health outcomes at the individual level.

Paper long abstract:

Preventive healthcare interventions are a central focus of public health efforts to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases such as type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, such programmes often focus excessively on individual-level behavioural determinants of health, which can increase health inequity since those with greater social, economic and cultural capital can utilise such programmes more effectively. For migrants, obstacles to engagement with such interventions may present at several levels (social, political, cultural and economic) and relate not only to healthcare access but also to the ways that chronic disease risk is perceived.

I am conducting a focused ethnography with migrants from Sub Saharan Africa living in Glasgow, Scotland, to explore perceptions around chronic disease risk and engagement with preventive healthcare. This involves a combination of participatory focus groups, 'go-along' and 'sit-down' semi-structured interviews, and photo elicitation, together with interviews with health care professionals.

My approach draws on theories of 'structural vulnerability' (Bourgois et al 2011) and 'risk environments' (Rhodes 2002) in the design and analysis of the fieldwork. This will allow for an exploration of how individual and cultural factors interact with wider political, social and economic contexts to shape migrants' health in Scotland and the power dynamics inherent in these interactions. A reconceptualisation of risk and risk perception should shift the focus from individual risk factors onto the broader determinants of illness risk, contributing to the development of preventive interventions that more comprehensively address how health behaviours are influenced and thus aid in reducing health inequity.