Ethnic Origins, Educational Level, and Responses to a Health Questionnaire

Abstract

Attitudes toward illness and medicine in various population groups, differential reactions to pain, as well as relationships between social status and types of illness have been examined in a number of studies in recent years. Such research has provided accumulating data on the role of social and cultural elements in perceptions of illness and in the etiology of certain physical and emotional diseases. Evidence from reports of war observations and experimental situations, as well as from clinical studies in medical fields offers numerous indications of relationships between perceptions of illness or pain and factors external to the individual.