An exploration of the social and cultural factors which influence Indian Punjabi men’s health beliefs and risk perceptions of type 2 diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) affects over 246 million people worldwide. South Asians are the largest group affected and have the fastest growing prevalence. South Asians have been identified as at risk due to biomedical dispositions including central adiposity and insulin resistance. Lifestyle factors are also associated with T2D. However, the majority of research area tends to homogenise south Asians, consequently overlooking some of the subtle cultural differences between sub groups. As a result, British Indian Punjabi men have been neglected from research, despite being one of the largest groups at risk. This qualitative study examined the social and cultural factors which influence Indian Punjabi men’s health beliefs and risk perceptions of T2D. Twenty-four interviews were carried out with Indian Punjabi men from first and second generations. The data was analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The findings revealed the cultural significance associated with hospitality and drinking, which emerged as important socio-cultural practices. The findings also demonstrated generational differences in how the men perceived their risk of T2D in either individual or collective terms. The findings of this research study have the potential to make an important contribution to T2D care by highlighting changes to future care strategies

How has the idea of prevention been conceptualised and progressed in adult social care in England?

The authors would like to thank the Department of Health and Social Care Policy Research Programme for funding the research on which this article is based.Over recent years, a preventative approach has been promoted within adult social care policy and practice in England. However, progress has been somewhat inconsistent, in part due to issues around conceptualising what exactly prevention means within this context. Particularly since the financial crisis, there have emerged tensions between seeing prevention as a positive strategy to build assets and capability; as part of a neo-liberal project to roll back expectations for state support; or simply as a technocratic strategy to increase efficiency by deploying resources ‘upstream’ where they might have greater impact. This paper provides a critical perspective on how policy has unfolded over the last 15 years, which provides the context for an analysis of findings from a national survey of English local authorities and interviews with key stakeholders. These findings demonstrate a substantial commitment to preventative activity, but also some serious confusions and contradictions in how this agenda may be taken forward in the current policy environment.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Promissory and protective imaginaries of regenerative medicine: Expectations work and scenario maintenance of disease research charities in the United Kingdom

This article draws upon recent scholarship on technoscientific imaginaries and the sociology of technology expectations to reveal the mediating roles played by a number of disease-focused research charities in the United Kingdom. We examine the expectations they deal with about regenerative medicine research, and how they develop strategies to support and ‘protect’ potential medical scenarios for new therapies for dread diseases. In so doing, we develop and detail a concept of scenario maintenance to denote the strategic discursive and practical work of preserving stakeholders’ faith in specific disease research pathways in the face of obstacles. Semi-structured in-depth interviews (N = 10) of research managers at nine research charities were qualitatively analysed, alongside a variety of charities’ documentary data. Our analysis yielded three themes: managing and moderating media expectations; specifying expectations about disease-specific appropriateness of regenerative medicine; and maintaining scenarios of possible pathways for future success taking challenges into account