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- Title
Health-Seeking Behaviors and Social Change: The Experience of the Hong Kong Chinese Elderly.
- Authors
Holroyd, Eleanor
- Abstract
In this article, the author outlines how the Hong Kong Chinese elderly revise, shift, and modify their health-seeking behaviors to adapt to rapid social change, presenting data drawn from three studies undertaken with elderly Chinese conducted in Hong Kong during the period 1993 to 1998. The primary data source is a qualitative survey involving interviews with 47 elderly Hong Kong Chinese men and women to ascertain their health-seeking beliefs and behaviors. The author analyzes how public policy and Confucian rhetoric constitute social guidelines, which are perceived in light of an individual's resources, gender and generational experiences and are manifest in health-seeking behaviors: seeking religious solace, preparing special food, visiting formal and informal healers, and shifting expectations of what constitutes family support. The article highlights the interface between public interpretations of old age, morality, religion, filial support, and personalized meaning as manifest in health behaviors.
- Subjects
HONG Kong (China); CHINA; OLDER people; AGE factors in health behavior; SOCIAL change
- Publication
Qualitative Health Research, 2002, Vol 12, Issue 6, p731
- ISSN
1049-7323
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/10432302012006002