Understanding health, culture, and empowerment in a disability context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the different kinds of health‐promotion activities undertaken by Chinese individuals in managing their disability from multiple sclerosis (MS). Design/methodology/approach – The theory of control behavior was used in this study to understand the different kinds of primary and secondary health‐coping strategies used by participants and their impact on intra‐ and inter‐personal empowerments. Using semi‐structured interviews, interpretive phenomenology was used to elicit and analyze attitudes and behaviors of Chinese participants' management of MS. Findings – Unlike previous studies which only emphasized the tangible aspects of physical health, the current paper suggests the importance of viewing health benefits in a more holistic manner. It was clear from the Chinese participants that “disability” and “healthy” were not viewed as two separate concepts. Being healthy does not mean an absence of disease but as role functioning, energy and vitality, social relationships, and emotional well‐being. The exploratory paper also found that empowerment outcomes involved an interaction of both the inter‐ and intra‐personal components and, at the same time, were driven by primary and secondary control‐related preferences. Research limitations/implications – Future research should include individuals with other disabilities and different demographic and socio‐cultural characteristics to confirm the generalizability of the findings uncovered here. Practical implications – The impact of culture and contextual/situational variables on individual's choice of primary and secondary control strategies has important implications for developing health strategies across different ethnic minority groups. Originality/value – The results provide support for the view that there are two dimensions to the process of patient empowerment. Rather than emphasizing primary control strategies, individuals can empower themselves by maintaining a balance between primary and secondary control strategies with respect to their health‐related goals.