title: Behaviours and beliefs about pain and treatment among Chinese immigrants and New Zealand Europeans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate how pain is construed and managed across Western and Chinese cultures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adults from the general public completed an anonymous survey developed for this study. Participants responded to recruitment posters and handouts that were distributed to Auckland community centres, libraries and relevant social organisations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  165 participants were recruited with slightly more Chinese respondents (57.0%). 128 participants (77.5%) reported having experienced persistent pain which did not recover within expected periods in the last 5 years, and occurred more among Chinese (60.2%) than New Zealand Europeans (39.8%). Pain behaviours and coping strategies were found to be significantly different between Europeans and Chinese. However, differences in perceptions regarding pain and treatment were not substantial. Interestingly, for both cultures some participants reported behaving differently than expected according to their perceptions. Acculturation levels, however, did not show any great impact on Chinese immigrants. The high incidence of persistent pain reported in the study compared to random population surveys suggest individuals who had pain experiences were more likely to respond to the study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is evident that culture plays an important role in determining various aspects of pain experience and response, although further investigation using randomised samples instead of self-selected survey populations is required to clarify the picture. The effect of acculturation levels particularly should be further investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ping Carolyn
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Malcolm H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003469:Culture; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D059408:Pain Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult