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Ethnic Diversity and Its Effect on Illness Perception and Self ISSN: 2469-5823 Gonen. Int Arch Nurs Health Care 2018, 4:099 DOI: 10.23937/2469-5823/1510099 Volume 4 | Issue 3 International Archives of Open Access Nursing and Health Care ORIGINAL RESEARCH Ethnic Diversity and its Effect on Illness Perception and Self-Man- agement of Type 2 Diabetes Patients Ayala Gonen* Check for updates Nursing Department, School of Social and Community Science, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel *Corresponding author: Ayala Gonen, PhD, RN, Nursing Department, School of Social and Community Science, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, 4025000, Israel, Tel: 972537002425 of change and are united under a single culture. The Is- Abstract raeli society is like a colored puzzle with many ethnic Israel is a country with a mosaic of different cultures. All groups, which can also be described as a “cultural mo- residents undergo a process of change and are united under a single culture. The study main purpose was to saic” - a mix of ethnic groups, languages, and cultures investigate whether Ethnic diversity have effect on illness that exist within society [1]. Since 1948, many waves of perception and self-management of Type 2 Diabetes pa- immigrants from all over the world arrived to Israel. In tients (DSMES) in Israel. The methodology used was a “Operation Moses” (1984-1986) and “Operation Solo- descriptive, exploratory design, 250 patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), born in Israel, or in the former mon” (1991), over 30,000 Jews arrived from Ethiopia. In USSR, aged 35-75, (response rate 80%). Two instruments addition, the influx of the Jewish immigrants from the were used: The Illness Perception Questionnaire and Dia- Soviet Union in the 1990s was the largest immigration betes Self-Management Questionnaire. A significant posi- wave, about one million people; in absolute terms, 15% tive correlation was found between illness perception and of the Israeli population [2]. Lots of immigrants from self-care management among the two ethnic groups: The Israeli natives comparing to Immigrants from former USSR. all over the world immigrated to Israel and increased The Immigrants from former USSR attributed less impor- the population of the country by over 12 percent in six tance to the T2DM perception, and DSMES, compared to years. Today there are 8,000,000 citizens in Israel, of those who were Israeli’s born. These findings provide fur- which 74.9% are Jews and approximately 20.73% are ther evidence about the important significance of the refer- ence to the subject of cultural diversity. The study’s results Muslims [3]. As for the time being, Israel has not as yet highlight the challenges of the nurses, who are the patients’ accrued long-term experience in combating disparities advocate, and in addition, within their framework, they must in its healthcare system [4]. That is why this study will deliver and enable the provision of support and guidance to answer the question: Does ethnic diversity have effect all patients especially the new immigrants. In conclusion, on illness perception and self-management of Type 2 activities should be aimed at developing awareness of eth- nic diversity, offering the patients a chance to acquire and Diabetes patients? Two large population groups in Is- exercise proper illness perceptions and self-managements rael will be discussed and compared: Native-born Sa- and providing them tools that they can reuse when exposed bras, as opposed to immigrants from the Soviet Union. to any health change that may occurred. Therefore, the basic characteristics of each group and Keywords group will be displayed here shortly: Ethnic diversity, Diabetes type 2, Self-care management, A ‘sabra’ (Hebrew: tzabar) is an informal term that DSMES, Illness perception, Nursing care refers to any Jew born in Israeli territory, and first ap- peared in the 1930s, referring to Jews who had been Introduction born in Ottoman or Mandatory Palestine [5]. The so- Israel is a land of immigration - a diverse society with ciological characteristics of the sabra were examined a mosaic of different cultures, where all residents, Jews by Oz Almog in his book ‘The Sabra - The Creation of and non-Jews, religious and secular, undergo a process the New Jew’ [6]. Almog [6] describes the image of Citation: Gonen A (2018) Ethnic Diversity and its Effect on Illness Perception and Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes Patients. Int Arch Nurs Health Care 4:099. doi.org/10.23937/2469-5823/1510099 Accepted: September 27, 2018: Published: September 29, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Gonen A. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Gonen. Int Arch Nurs Health Care 2018, 4:099 • Page 1 of 9 • DOI: 10.23937/2469-5823/1510099 ISSN: 2469-5823 the native-born Israeli by eight characteristics: Elitism, began to appear among young people and children. The self-satisfaction; Directness; Roughness; Social involve- disease is caused by inefficient use of insulin, which is ment; Sociability, spending time with friends and fami- largely the result of excess weight, an unbalanced diet, ly; Temperament and joy of life; Curiosity and initiative; and lack of exercise. Treatment of diabetes is a lifelong Non-conformism and criticism. condition that includes adherence to physicians’ rec- ommendations and diabetes self-management, which These characteristics are quite different from the is a much more complex phenomenon that requires characteristics of other group - immigrants from the integration of many complex skills into the daily life of Soviet Union. The uniqueness of the Jewish immigrants individuals. When the patient with diabetes improves from the Soviet Union is the high human capital which his/her self-management, it can prevent or significantly is very impressive and important. It was an extraordi- slow the progression of the disease and its complica- nary wave of immigration compared to immigrants in tions [11]. The prevalence of diabetes across the world other immigration countries. The Central Bureau Statis- has increased from year to year. According to W.H.O. tics in Israel [7] studied the integration of the former report [12], an estimated 422 million adults were living Soviet Union Jews in Israel. They found that the rate of with diabetes worldwide, compared to 108 million in the immigrants who had academic degrees (BA, MA and 1980. Over the past decade, diabetes prevalence has PhD) among them was very high, and one of the char- risen faster in low- and middle-income countries than acteristics of immigrants from the Soviet Union is the in high-income countries [13]. Paralleled to presenting composition of relatively older ages. The median age the status of the diabetes disease around the world, was 33.5 years, while the median age of the other immi- The Israeli Ministry of Health [13] reported that Israel grants was 26 years [7]. It was also noted in this survey, was ranked among the first five countries in which dia- that the level of control of the Hebrew language and the betes mortality rates were the highest. The Israeli MOH community involvement of immigrants from the former attaches great importance to the prevention of diabe- Soviet Union decreased with age. Russian language has tes and its complications. For this purpose, it acted to remained central to the immigrants’ linguistic reper- improve the monitoring of the disease, by establishing toire; it constitutes a language and a culture for many a National Diabetes Registry at the Center for Disease of them, including for the younger generation born in Control at the Ministry of Health [13], and regulating re- Israel [8]. porting on pre-diabetes, diabetes and its complications. At this stage, it is important to emphasize the issue This is to enable planning health care services and pro- of new immigrants’ ways of coping with the new situ- grams to prevent diabetes and its complications in the ation. Post, Pong, and Ou [9] described three styles of population. At present, we do not yet have updated dia- immigrants’ behavior which is very typical to the Soviet betes prevalence rates of the last years [13]. Union immigrants: Assimilation, Separation, and Inte- It is important to note and emphasize the issue and gration. The term Assimilation means abandoning for- the impact of health behavior in diabetes, as expressed mer cultural habits and values in order to be accepted in in the perception of the disease and self-management the new country; The term Separation means: focusing of the disease. Diabetes has a significant impact on on keeping own values and avoiding contact with the the daily lives of people, their families, healthcare and majority culture; and the term Integration means hold- more. There are also cultural and environmental factors ing on to some aspects of the original culture (cultural that affect the disease itself and the ADA note that Dia- integrity) such as central norms and values, and at the betes is a disease that can be viewed as a link between same time, trying to melt into the new cultural environ- one’s ethnicity and race and the incidence of the disease ment. Understanding these three styles is very import- among this group [11]. Barriers to illness perception and ant to us as professional’s nurses so that we can recog- self-management can be communication barriers like nize the basis of the immigrants’ behavior and we must distrust, misunderstanding, and educational methods, find adjustment patterns to help them in their illness or also organizational barriers like quality of care and perception and self-care management including educa- access issues. Consequently, there is a need to improve tion and support (DSMES). Most of the aged immigrants cross-cultural communication and to develop different from the former USSR chose the strategy of separation, approaches to diabetes education [14].
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