Health Promotion International, Vol. 8, No. 2, 85-94, 1993
© Oxford University Press 1993
research-article |
Social environment and health behaviour: a case study of Japanese overseas students
School of Health Sciences, Monash University Gippsland, Australia
Address for correspondence: Address for correspondence: Gurpal Kaur Sandhu School of Health Sciences Monash University Gippsland Campus Churchill, Victoria 3842 Australia
The health related problems and issues of overseas students studying in Australia were addressed within the social perspective of health and health behaviours. It was argued that a clinical ‘one-to-one’ approach to treating somantic illness within the biomedical model and modifying health behaviours through traditional health education approaches, failed to bring about comprehensive changes in health outcomes. Instead, a model which addresses the social perspective of health behaviour and social environmental strategies was proposed as a more effective means by which to bring about changes. A case study of 28 Japanese students studying English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) at an Australian rural tertiary education institution is presented to illustrate the effects which the physical and socio-cultural environments have upon the health behaviours of a culturally sensitive and isolated population. Factors which were found to influence the health status and health habits of Japanese students were those related to community structure and its competencies, social interaction, diet, traditional Japanese healing practices and conceptualization of illness within Japanese culture. These factors inadvertently interacted with the Australian physical and socio-cultural environment resulting in health problems. It was proposed that primary health care policy-based strategies, focusing on the Japanese and Australian socio-environmental as well as socio-physiological aspects of health, leading to reorientation, would be more successful in inducing change.
Key words: health behaviours; social context; Japanese students