Understanding the Chinese Hui Ethnic Minority’s Information Seeking on Cardiovascular Diseases: A Focus Group Study

The Chinese Hui ethnic minority group is an Islamic minority. The Hui people comprise the third largest minority population in China and are widely distributed throughout the country. Previous research shows that the Hui had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) than most other ethnic groups. Therefore, the availability of health information relating to these factors is especially important for the Hui minority’s preventive healthcare. They do, however, experience difficulties in obtaining health-related information. The current research aims to identify the needs of the Hui people on where and how they obtain cardiovascular disease (CVD) related information from the media and other sources. Six focus groups were conducted in Shenyang City. The results revealed that the participants relied on different sources to get advice about CVDs, of which the internet and television were the most prominent ones. The participants expressed a desire for credible and professional information from different sources and asked for mediated health communication programs specifically targeted at the Hui. In addition, the participants felt ignored by the Chinese mainstream media at large, which created barriers for them to get health information.