Medical pluralism of the Chinese in London: an exploratory study

This study was designed to examine the extent of medical pluralism among the Chinese in London.

Members of the London Chinese community were recruited through Chinese organizations in London and participated in six focus groups.

A total of 48 Chinese men and women aged 24-74 years were asked to talk about their health behaviour and health utilization patterns. Transcripts of the focus group discussions underwent thematic analysis to explore and describe the utilization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine (WM) of informants and factors that impacted on utilization.

Findings focus on participants' evaluation of TCM and WM as two systems of health provision, how informants used these two health systems, and the reasons associated with use of these two systems. Utilization of TCM and WM varied. Concurrent use of TCM and WM was common. The National Health Service was generally perceived as difficult to use, with concerns over the language barrier, and communicating with and being able to trust health providers. The UK TCM trade was perceived as being aimed at the non-Chinese market and there were issues of trust related to the regulation of UK TCM.

Although none of these issues are unique to the Chinese in the UK, previous experience with different approaches to health care, particularly TCM, may make the experience of such barriers more extreme.