Iranian migrants' discourses of health and the implications for using standardized health measures with minority groups.

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of health implied in the SF-36 within a group of Iranians in Australia. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 21 people--10 females and 11 males. For the first time, the NUD*IST program was used to organize and manage the data in Persian (also known as Farsi), the language spoken by Iranians. Health was defined in terms of holistic, spiritual, social, physical/emotional aspects, and absence-of-disorder dimensions. Among these, physical, absence of disorder, holistic, and spiritual aspects of health were mentioned more frequently than other themes. The findings of the study raise concerns about the extent to which the SF-36 captures the diversity of the concept of health as expressed by the sample of Iranian migrants.