Aims: To compare illness and treatment perceptions between Arabic-speaking immigrants and Caucasian English-speaking people with type 2 diabetes, and explore the relationships between these beliefs and adherence to self-care activities. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in healthcare settings with large Arabic populations in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia. Adherence to self-care activities, illness and treatment perceptions, and clinical data were recorded. Bivariate associations for continuous normally distributed variables were tested with Pearson's correlation. Non-parametric data were tested using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results: 701 participants were recruited; 392 Arabic-speaking participants (ASPs) and 309 English-speaking participants (ESPs). There were significant relationships between participants' illness and treatment perceptions and adherence to diabetes self-care activities. ASPs' negative beliefs about diabetes were strongly and significantly correlated with poorer adherence to diet recommendations, exercise, blood glucose testing and foot care. ASPs were significantly less adherent to all aspects of diabetes self-care compared with ESPs: dietary behaviours (P = <0.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) = -1.17, -0.84), exercise and physical activity (P = <0.001, 95% CI -1.14, -0.61), blood glucose testing (P = <0.001) and foot-care (P = <0.001). 52.8% of ASPs were sceptical about prescribed diabetes treatment compared with only 11.2% of the ESPs. 88.3% of ASPs were non-adherent to prescribed medication, compared with 45.1% of ESPs. Conclusions: Arabic-speaking migrants' illness and treatment perceptions were significantly different from the English-speaking group. There is a pressing need to develop new innovative interventions that deliver much-needed improvements in adherence to self-care activities and key health outcomes. © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Arabic-speaking adherence type 2 diabetes Illness and treatment perceptions

physical activity perception rural area immigrant multicenter study Australia physiology clinical trial exercise cholesterol blood level low density lipoprotein cholesterol Caucasian nonparametric test non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 human epidemiology correlation coefficient middle aged controlled study Aged illness behavior Victoria Arab language ethnology Arabs procedures hemoglobin A1c Cross-Sectional Studies quality of life cross-sectional study migrant psychology Humans male Emigrants and Immigrants female blood glucose monitoring Caucasian English speaking migrant foot care Article health care glucose blood level patient compliance major clinical study adult migration European Continental Ancestry Group arabic speaking migrant high density lipoprotein cholesterol triacylglycerol blood level triacylglycerol glucose Transients and Migrants Self Care