Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing.docx

Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing
*
IntroductionThe word “ criticism” often means to find fault.In
Higher Education courses it is usually used to mean analysing
the strengths and weakness of a particular work, in order to
make a careful judgement about the work.Students need to
develop critical judgements in order to compare, contrast and
evaluate assigned reading.
*
Critical ReadingThe first step in critical writing is critical
reading.This involves paying attention to details of the author’s
language.A single reading is never sufficient.Three or four
readings should be considered before beginning the critical
writing.

Critical Reading
You will need to analyse:The author’s main argument.The
sufficiency of the evidence provided to support the argument.
The tone and styles employed by the author in the text.The
overall plausibility of the subject matter.
Critical Reading V Critical ThinkingCritical reading is a
technique for discovering information and ideas.Critical
thinking is a technique for evaluating information and ideas, for
deciding what to accept and believe.
Critical Reading V Critical ThinkingCritical reading refers to
careful active, reflective analytic reading.Critical thinking
involves reflecting on the validity of what has been read, in
light of prior knowledge and understanding of the world.
Critical Reading V Critical ThinkingCritical thinking and
critical reading work together.Critical thinking allows the
reader to monitor their understanding as they read.If the reader
senses that the assertions are ridiculous or irresponsible (critical
thinking), the reader examines the text more closely to test their
understanding (critical reading).
Reading Critically
Consider that the author has

taken on a job where certain
tasks must be done:A specific topic must be addressed.Terms
must be clearly defined.Evidence must be presented.Common
knowledge must be accounted for.
Reading CriticallyExceptions must be explained.Causes must be
shown to precede effects and to be capable of the
effect.Conclusions must be shown to follow logically from
earlier arguments and evidence.
Reading CriticallyCritical readers and writers need to assure
themselves that these tasks have been completed in a
comprehensive and consistent manner.Once this has been done
then they can begin to evaluate whether or not to accept the
assertions and conclusions.
Three Steps or Modes of Analysis in Critical ReadingWhat a
text says.What a text does.What a text means.Restatement
Description
Interpretation
Distinguishing Modes of AnalysisWhat a text says – restatement
- talks about the same topic as the original text.What the text
does – description – discusses aspects of the discussion
itself.What the text means – interpretation – analyzes the text
and asserts a meaning for the text as a whole.

Critical ThinkingReading a text may suffice if the goal is only
to learn specific information, or to understand someone else’s
ideas.Critical writing involves evaluating what has been read,
and integrating that with prior understanding. The reader must
decide what is true and useful.
Critical ThinkingCritical readers want to accept as fact, only
that which is true.In order to evaluate a conclusion, evidence
upon which that conclusion is made needs to be evaluated.
Critical ThinkingThe critical reader wants reliable
information.To assess the validity of remarks within a text, the
reader must go outside the text, and bring to bear outside
knowledge and standards.
Critical Reading and WritingThrough careful analysis of the
text it is possible to develop rigorous, logical ways of
reasoning.Rigorous analytical thinking can then be carried into
critical writing.
Critical Reading and Writing
When reading critically:Texts should not be read for
information only.The critical reader needs to look for ways of
thinking critically about the text, before beginning to write.

While reading consider the
following questions:How does this text work?How is it
argued?How is the evidence used and interpreted?How does the
text reach its conclusion?
Critical Reading and WritingCritical reading is an active
process where the reader interacts with the text, whilst
maintaining an inner dialogue with the author.The critical
reader is required to produce questions, while following the
author’s line of reasoning.
A method of maintaining
dialogue with the author is
annotating the text, such as:
HighlightingUnderliningWriting in the margins
Critical Reading and WritingAn inexperienced reader may
highlight too extensively.This causes difficulty later when
attempting to extract the main ideas from the highlighted areas.
Critical AnalysisPurpose of a critique is to evaluate somebody
else’s work, to increase the reader’s understanding of it.A
critical analysis is subjective writing, because it express the
writer’s opinion or evaluation of the text.

Critical AnalysisAnalysis means to break down and study the
parts.Writing a critical paper requires two steps:
Critical reading Critical writing
Critical Analysis
Critical Reading and Writing:Identify the author’s work and
purpose.Analyze the structure of the text by identifying all the
main ideas.Consult a dictionary or encyclopedia to understand
unfamiliar material.Make an outline of the work or write a
description of it.
Critical AnalysisWrite a summary of the work.Determine the
purpose which could be:To inform with factual
materialPersuade with appeal to reason or emotion.To entertain
(to affect people’s emotion)Evaluate the means by which the
author has accomplished his purpose.
Critical AnalysisWhen writing a critique of the work of an
author it is beneficial to use an appropriate framework.
The University of South Wales recommends the framework
proposed by Bennet (2001), available on Moodle.
This article was downloaded by: [University of South Wales]
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Critical Public Health
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Black families’ perceptions of barriers
to the practice of a healthy lifestyle: a
qualitative study in the UK
Bertha M.N. Ochieng a
a School of Health Studies, University of Bradford , 25 Trinity
Road, Bradford BD5 0BB , UK
Published online: 31 Aug 2011.
To cite this article: Bertha M.N. Ochieng (2013) Black families’
perceptions of barriers to the
practice of a healthy lifestyle: a qualitative study in the UK,
Critical Public Health, 23:1, 6-16, DOI:
10.1080/09581596.2011.610438
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Critical Public Health
Black families’ perceptions of barriers to the practice of a
healthy

lifestyle: a qualitative study in the UK
Bertha M.N. Ochieng*
School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, 25 Trinity
Road, Bradford BD5 0BB, UK
(Received 31 October 2010; final version received 29 July
2011)
While studies have focused on tangible indicators of the
practice of healthy
lifestyles, there remains a dearth of research exploring the inter-
relation-
ships between the practice of healthy lifestyles and the
prevailing living
circumstances of Black and other visible minority ethnic
communities in
Western societies. This article presents an account of African
Caribbean
men and women’s beliefs and perceptions about the barriers of
practising a
healthy lifestyle, focusing specifically on the effects of social
exclusion,
racism and ethnic identity. A total of 18 participants from the
north of
England participated in the study, with in-depth interviews
conducted in
their homes. The participants believed that principles of healthy
lifestyles
were largely not relevant to their lived experiences because they
failed to
take into account their experiences of racism, social exclusion,
ethnic
identity, values and beliefs. Indeed, participants argued that,
with their

emphasis on illness prevention and perceived Eurocentric
approaches, the
principles of healthy lifestyle were part of the social exclusion
paradigm
experienced by their community. The study concludes by
suggesting that it
is essential to place notions of socio-economic disadvantage,
discrimina-
tion, marginalisation and racism at the centre rather than the
periphery
when considering strategies to make healthier choices an easier
option for
Black and other visible minority ethnic communities.
Keywords: African Caribbean; ethnicity; ethnic identity;
healthy lifestyles;
interviewing; racism
Introduction
Though culture, socio-economic status and individual
experiences have received
increasing attention in recent years as a compelling area for the
study of healthy
lifestyles, there is still a dearth of information on the beliefs
and experiences of
healthy lifestyles of Black and other visible minority ethnic
communities
1
in Western
societies. This is reflected in a number of health surveys that
have been conducted in
Canada, the United States of America (USA) and the United
Kingdom (UK)

(Johnson et al. 2000, Craig and Shelton 2008, King et al. 2009).
While these health
surveys have provided some useful data to help us understand
attitudes towards
having healthy lifestyles, the surveys appear to reinforce and
place responsibility for
health directly on individuals and their lifestyle choices.
Indeed, explanations for
*Email: [email protected]
� 201 Taylor & Francis
Vol. 23, No. 1, 6–16,
, 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2011.610438
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variations in patterns of healthy lifestyle practices between
people of different ethnic
groups tend to emphasise the importance of individual attitudes
towards behaviour
and its consequences and not the importance of structural
barriers affecting
behaviour. This disregard becomes particularly poignant
because the meanings and
practices of healthy lifestyles rely not only on culturally
specific beliefs but also on
individuals’ experiences of their society (Blaxter 1990, Ochieng
2006); this therefore
suggests that healthy lifestyles should be treated as a secondary
phenomenon that
merits inspection within the context of the primary criterion.
Yet, the intricate
connections between a healthy lifestyle and the prevailing life
situations of Black and
other visible minority ethnic communities in Western societies
have received very
little attention. This article focuses on the concepts African
Caribbean men and
women have about healthy lifestyles and examine their
perceptions and beliefs about
the dynamic and interactive nature of the interplay between
their lived experiences
and practice of healthy lifestyles.
Several reports confirm that the African Caribbean communities
suffer greatly
from lifestyle-related illnesses such as obesity, diabetes,
hypertension and strokes in

comparison with their White counterparts (Nazroo 2001,
Harding and Balarajan
2002). In addition, evidence suggests that the communities have
fewer options in
their working, domestic and social lives (Clark and Drinkwater
2007, Williams
2010). Given the links between economic status and health and
the data that
members of African Caribbean community are, on average,
economically less well
placed than White people, it would not be surprising to find that
there were
significant health inequalities between the two groups. Yet in
various health surveys
and studies of the health behaviour of African Caribbean
communities (Sproston
and Mimdell 2005, Tillin et al. 2006), behavioural factors have
been implicated while
other social determinants such as social class, poverty or social
discrimination have
been inadequately controlled for.
Methodology
This study has drawn material from a larger community-based
study on the health
and well-being of African Caribbean community in West
Yorkshire in the north of
England. The study was approved by the local health authority
ethics committee.
Participants were recruited using purposive sampling, via
community organisations,
Black church organisations and voluntary centres that
specifically cater for Black
and other visible minority families. The participants comprised
11 women and 7 men

with ages ranging from 22 to 60 years. Each participant
received written and oral
explanations of the study and informed consent was obtained. It
was also guaranteed
that anonymity and confidentiality would be applied. This
article focuses on
participants’ perceptions of how racism, social exclusion and
lack of recognition of
ethnic identity constrained and limited their choices to practise
a healthy lifestyle in
the UK.
The data for this part of the study was collected via in-depth
interviews
(Denscombe 2003, Heyl 2007) in participants’ homes. The
process was facilitated by
using an in-depth interview schedule, with sections covering
demography, barriers to
health and healthy lifestyles, and factors facilitating and
inhibiting good health and
healthy lifestyles, with a number of trigger questions for each
section. The researcher,
herself of African descent origin, tape recorded all the
interviews in participants’
7Critical Public Health
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homes and later transcribed them. Hammersley and Atkinson
(2007) argue that
establishing rapport between researcher and researched is an
essential aim in
qualitative research. Cornwell (1984) and Schrijvers (1983,
1993) had found earlier
that informants provide the best narrative accounts only to
researchers who become
familiar with them over time, or because of shared
characteristics such as ethnicity
and motherhood. In this study, the researcher argues that her
status as a Black
researcher and the long hours she spent with the participants
enabled her to develop
familiarity and interpersonal relationships with those she
interviewed. This gave her
access to a great deal of detailed data, which otherwise might
not have been possible
if a researcher of a different ethnicity without similar cultural
and life experiences
had interviewed the participants (see author’s extensive account
on Black researchers
interviewing Black families, Ochieng 2010).

The process of data analysis involved coding materials and
identifying themes
and categories (Fetterman 2007). A number of themes had been
developed by the
researcher in the course of the ongoing theoretical reflections
during fieldwork; these
were used for initial coding of the interview materials
(Fetterman 2007). Further
analysis of these themes allowed the classification of a number
of categories. The
emerging findings were discussed with participants in post-
interview visits and at two
community forums that were organised to discuss the health of
Black families.
Similar views were expressed in the community forums;
critically this allowed
participants and members of the wider community to voice their
opinions and
reinforced the credibility of the findings.
A limitation of this study is that it was based on a small sample
of purposively
selected individuals, but this enabled the use of in-depth
interviews to explore issues
at length and provided an opportunity to examine multi-
dimensional elements of
their lived experiences and contextual correlations of healthy
lifestyles fully with
participants.
Findings
Participants’ concepts of healthy lifestyles
Participants’ description of healthy lifestyles fell into three

broad categories:
. tangible behavioural patterns
. accessibility to public or social services
. social order and control mechanisms
Healthy lifestyles as tangible behavioural patterns
The participants identified a number of different observable
behavioural patterns
and characteristics they considered to constitute a healthy
lifestyle (Table 1). Part A
of Table 1 lists the findings that appear broadly to reflect the
existing advice on
healthy lifestyle and include the need for a healthy diet and
physical activity (DoH
2010); the issues included in Part B are arguably unique and
appear to interrelate
with African Caribbeans’ values and life experiences.
Participants argued that the principles for maintaining a healthy
lifestyle should
also be about countering socio-economic disadvantages; racism,
discrimination and
the provision of appropriate education while taking into
considerations individual’s
values and beliefs (Table 1 Part B).
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Healthy lifestyles as the accessibility to public or social
services
All participants cited a number of public or social service
facilities that they believed
should be a component of a healthy lifestyle. They argued that
there was a need for
appropriate management and delivery of these services in order
to benefit individual
health. Consequently, a healthy lifestyle meant having access to
employment,
relevant education, health care and good housing, with equality
and fairness in their
delivery. These arguments are illustrated in the comments
below:
My worry is . . . Will I be treated fairly when I’m looking for a
job, seeing the doctor?

Also . . . our priorities [refers to his ethnicity as an African
Caribbean] in life are different
and that should be respected and considered as part of our
healthy lifestyle. (52-year-old
male)
This healthy lifestyle fits in better with the White lifestyle . . .
it’s about their way of life,
the way they want to see things done, the middle-class way. But
as I say a healthy
lifestyle for us is about having a decent job, having our voices
heard, our children having
a good education, and not being abused because I’m Caribbean.
(46-year-old female)
The widely accepted notions of what constitutes a healthy
lifestyle, with their
emphasis on individual responsibility, were regarded as
irrelevant. The participants
clearly struggled with other priorities in their lives, which they
believed were more
relevant and should be taken into consideration as part of a
healthy lifestyle strategy.
This is illustrated in the following comment:
When the government and ruling class people make all this
advice, about healthy eating,
exercise, relaxing . . . they think we are all the same; some of
these things are not
important to us, because we are and feel oppressed. Therefore,
although they tell us
these things are good for our health we still cannot reach them .
. . I mean, living a
healthy lifestyle is easier for the people with money. (42-year-
old male)

A healthy lifestyle as a social order and control mechanism
More than half the participants argued that the widely
documented UK healthy
lifestyle principles were a control mechanism to bring about
social order in
Table 1. Participants beliefs on factors contributing towards a
healthy lifestyle.
Part A � No cigarette smoking, no drugs, alcohol in moderation
� Healthy diet
� Exercise
� Healthy sexual practice
� Education
� Healthy neighbourhood
� State of well-being including sufficient hours of sleep and
rest
� Functional family and social dynamics
Part B � Equality and anti-discriminatory practices
� Healthy diet including the traditional African Caribbean diet
� For children and young people, the need for Africa centric
educational curriculum inclusive of African Caribbean history
and life experiences
� Positive media images and information supportive of African
Caribbean community beliefs and values
� Religious belief that is in keeping with African Caribbean
values
and beliefs

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enhancing White British values and beliefs about healthy
lifestyles; they felt they
were being asked to conform to dominant values and beliefs.
For example, they
talked about the lack of inclusion of African Caribbean foods as
part of a healthy
diet; such an omission was interpreted as an attempt to maintain
social order and
control over what is considered to be a healthy diet. They
argued that if the values
and beliefs of UK Black and other visible minority communities
had been
considered, this would have challenged the control and social
order in promoting

only certain foods:
Our foods also being publicised as healthy . . . you know that
can’t happen, it’s about
having control on what is healthy and to maintain and enforce
how we should behave,
yes it’s about maintaining some social order on how we behave.
Participants argued that healthy lifestyles should not be about
‘social order’ and
‘control mechanisms’ in order to promote certain behavioural
attributes, but instead
be designed to encourage community empowerment, harmony
and understanding
within and with other ethnic groups. When asked why unity was
important, the
participants spoke of their internal divisions arising from
adherence to a particular
Caribbean island identity and the divisions among the wider
working classes that
worked against forming partnerships and alliances within their
community and other
working-class groups to create better living status for all low
socio-economic groups.
Barriers to practising a healthy lifestyle
This article focuses on two key areas identified by the African
Caribbean adult
participants as barriers to having a healthy lifestyle:
. experiences of racism, social exclusion and socio-economic
disadvantage
. lack of recognition of participants’ ethnic identity, values and

beliefs.
Experiences of racism, social exclusion and socio-economic
disadvantage
Experiences of racism and social exclusion emerged as the
major barrier to
maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The participants emphasised
that racism permeated
nearly all aspects of their lives and was described as a dynamic
force, with manifold
manifestations, which resulted in them being excluded from not
only opportunities
and outcomes in labour markets, but also a much broader spread
of social and
economic life chances. Therefore, rather than being a discrete
alternative barrier to
maintaining a healthy lifestyle, racism was considered to have a
direct effect on
socio-economic position, health status and overall well-being.
Typical responses
from participants on the subject of racism included:
Racism can limit your progress, limit your potential and limit
how much healthy
lifestyle you can participate in; you are afraid of going out:
limit what you can do, limit
your chances, affects your mental abilities and health. Develop
all sorts of illnesses.
(42-year-old male)
The participant cited above further argued that racism results in
high morbidity
and mortality rates with poor longevity rates, leads to a high
incidence of psycho-
pathological illnesses, and encourages personality traits and

attitudes that disad-
vantage an individual’s ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
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An interesting finding was a generally held belief that since a
higher proportion of
African Caribbean women than men have a job, their options to
practise a healthy
lifestyle were perceived to be slightly more favourable than
those for African
Caribbean men. In line with the literature on employment and
labour market

statistics, African Caribbean boys and men were thought to
suffer significant
consequences of racism in the labour market, more than girls
and women. Men were
perceived to be under-employed with a significant proportion in
unskilled and
insecure jobs. Such factors were perceived to limit significantly
the choice of African
Caribbean men to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Interestingly, the
women repeatedly
raised concerns about the ill-treatment of their sons, their sons’
friends, and their
brothers, husbands or partners, who were often the source of a
great deal of grief and
anxiety:
It’s difficult for the boys. The whole system views them with
suspicion: they grow up
and they are discriminated in the jobs; there is a lot of
frustration, restlessness and anger
and it’s an ongoing circle. It’s a vicious circle for them really,
they are not settled in any
aspect of their lives really . . . It’s tough for them to have a
healthy lifestyle when you
look at it. (41-year-old female)
The African Caribbean women in this study appeared to be
politicised and called
for a better understanding of the challenges African Caribbean
men encountered
within the wider UK society and the need for their community

and they themselves
to redress a masculinity constantly damaged by racism and
discrimination, leading to
socio-economic disadvantages, family breakdowns and poor
experiences of healthy
lifestyle for men, women and their children.
Participants argued that for healthier choices to be easier for the
African Caribbean community there is a need for health
practitioners and other
stakeholders to focus on equality in education and labour
markets and actively
challenge racism and discrimination, therefore creating the
potential to enhance the
opportunities for African Caribbean men, women and children
to maintain a healthy
lifestyle:
Racism really affect our lives and should form part of a healthy
lifestyle. I mean like the
discrimination we face at work, school and so on, all these do
affect our health and lives,
it’s difficult to get a decent lifestyle I say that the racism
should be stopped. (37-year-old
male)
Lack of recognition of African Caribbean ethnic identity, values
and beliefs
Participants argued that a number of the existing healthy
lifestyle principles ignored
and marginalised African Caribbean ethnic identity, values and

beliefs. For instance,
there was a general perception among participants that healthy
eating meant giving
up part of their ethnic identity:
[A] healthy lifestyle is sort of sold to us to make us fit in with
their [the wider White
majority community] lifestyle . . . there are other things which
are very healthy and are
practised by other cultures. Have you seen yam [or] plantain in
healthy food messages?
It’s not as if our food is bad, is it? (39-year-old female)
Their identity as African Caribbeans was important and
participants argued for
principles that engendered a sense of involvement and pride in
their individual and
collective ethnic identity. This they believed would bring about
positive self-esteem
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and well-being:
When you talk about healthy lifestyles to us, first and foremost
you have to remember
that we are Black and we are originally from the Caribbean; you
have to understand us
and understand our lifestyle; that is important . . . whether it is
healthy or not is not
important . . . it is who we are . . . (52-year-old male)
Participants argued that their identity is formed from their
African, Caribbean
and British backgrounds and that this triple identification
should be recognised in
advice on how to live healthily. Because participants believed
that those promoting
healthy lifestyle principles have not taken their values into
consideration, this belief
appears to have provoked strong feelings and the need to assert
their ethnic identity.
Consequently, ethnic identity became an important element of
African Caribbeans
asserting their rights in this climate of equality for all. For
most, this was an
important point of defiance, resistance and source of pride and
personal empow-

erment in the interpersonal sphere and appeared to influence
some respondents’ not
to embrace the existing healthy lifestyle principles:
I am rebelling against the whole system in this country and I eat
what I want to eat.
Discussion
Lay concepts of healthy lifestyle
In this study, the analysis of data relating to lay beliefs on
healthy lifestyles identified
several categories linked to participants’ life experiences,
including their history,
values and belief systems. It also emerged that individuals have
many different views
of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, often relating to complex
behaviours based on
their life experiences. This is in line with previous studies such
as James (2004),
Young et al. (2001) and Calnan and Johnson (1985), which
provided evidence that
both the existence and the quality and experiences of healthy
lifestyles may have
some cultural and socio-economic determinants.
The objective of a healthy lifestyle as detailed by the UK’s
Department of Health
(DoH 2010) and the World Health Organisation (1998) is to
enhance and promote
an individual’s health by advocating a holistic approach that
meets the needs of the
whole individual. This is in line with the findings of this study:
participants indicated

that a healthy lifestyle should include addressing and countering
the constraints that
limit individuals’ ability to practise healthy lifestyles, such as
socioeconomic
disadvantages and racism; and enabling the accessibility to
public services while
challenging inequalities and social disadvantages. This finding
suggests that the DoH
(2010, p. 33) strategy of ‘nudging people in the right direction’
to maintain a healthy
lifestyle, rather than banning or significantly restricting their
choices, may have
limited outcome if they are experiencing socio-economic
disadvantages, racism and
discrimination with restricted access to public services.
Barriers to practising of a healthy lifestyle
Echoing the findings of other studies (Paramjit et al. 2003), the
participants in this
study spoke about the constant burden that social discrimination
caused in their
daily lives. Racial prejudice and discrimination, lack of social
opportunities, and the
12 B.M.N. Ochieng
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experiences of deprivation and socio-economic disadvantages
were identified as
significant barriers to engage fully in healthy lifestyles. There
was evidence that the
intersection of disparate interests of economic factors and
racism including the space
left by the macro-structural constraints of social exclusion
contributed to the
inability of African Caribbeans to have healthy lifestyles.
However, the relevance of
racism, discrimination and socio-economic structures to the
ability to have a healthy
lifestyle is currently conceived of in a limited fashion (DoH
2010). Findings from this
study illustrate the need for models of positive health outcomes
to include broader
issues of social justice; practitioners working with individuals
and communities to
maintain a healthy lifestyle must place notions of social
structures and policy
processes at the centre of their concerns.

Unlike a number of studies that have documented gender
variations based on
attitudes towards high risk behaviour (Pryce 1986, Uitenbroek
1994), in this study
gender differences were mainly perceived to be the outcome of
differences in
employment status of African Caribbean males compared with
their female
counterparts. Like other studies (Shields and Price 2003),
participants in this study
argued that being in employment provides a basis for self-
respect, self-worth, a sense
of responsibility and the ability to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.
Critically, the resources
that derive from employment are significant factors in the
choice to practise a
healthy lifestyle. Consequently, women participants in this
study theorised that by
using socio-economic status as an indicator they would be more
likely to practise a
healthy lifestyle than men. Although gender remains a largely
unexplored area in
relation to attitudes and experiences of the healthy lifestyles of
Black and other
visible minority ethnic communities in Western societies, in this
study, the perceived
gender differences in the options available to maintain a healthy
lifestyle suggest a
need for further study to evaluate the influences of education,
employment, racism
and discrimination on these groups’ ability to engage in a
healthy lifestyle. Only in
this way, we can begin to understand and unravel the extent to

which racism and
discrimination limit the options people have to practise a
healthy lifestyle.
Participants in this study, like any other group of people,
believe that their
identity is of crucial importance (Bourdieu 1977). This identity
was a source of pride
and personal empowerment in the interpersonal sphere and
influenced how people
made decisions about how to live a healthy lifestyle. It could be
argued that because
healthy lifestyle strategies were perceived not to have taken the
identity, values and
beliefs of participants into consideration, it may have actually
provoked them to
assert their ethnic identity. Karlsen and Nazroo (2002) argue
that an ethnic group
may develop a form of politicised identity as a radicalised
group in reaction to some
form of social constraint, while Hylton (2010) contends that for
individuals of
African descent in the UK, the use of Africancentricity and
creating positives from
negative labels are arrived at through personal and collective
experiences of racism
and class struggles. This ethnic assertiveness is in line with
Modood’s (1997, p. 290)
argument:
There is an ethnic assertiveness, arising out of the feelings of
not being respected or
lacking access to public space, consisting of counterposing
positive images against

traditional or dominant stereotypes. It is a politics of projecting
identities in order to
challenge existing power relations.
Similarly, it is also possible that the implementation of the Race
Relations
Amendment Act (2000) by local authorities and the recognition
of cultural sensitivity
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to be practised by health and other social policy agencies
(Papadopoulos 2006,
Capstick et al. 2009) has enabled the group of African

Caribbean participants in this
study to become politicised and assert the need for their ethnic
identity and lived
experiences to be taken into account by those advocating for
healthy lifestyles.
Unfortunately, although there is substantial discourse on
healthy lifestyles, there is a
dearth of research on the interplay between people’s ethnic
identity and whether they
maintain a healthy lifestyle. There is, therefore, a need for
further work in this area in
order to establish the extent to which the concept of self-
identity influences
experiences and attitudes of a healthy lifestyle.
The way forward
The barriers to maintaining a healthy lifestyle identified by
participants in this study
suggest that healthy lifestyle principles must not only
emphasise the potential
benefits of strengthening marginalised disadvantaged and
socially excluded commu-
nities (DoH 2010), but also tackle the barriers to maintaining
healthy lifestyles as a
means of reducing health inequalities. This suggests that there
is a need to advocate
for a healthy lifestyle in a much broader and interconnected way
and to consider the
combination of factors that influence an individual to maintain a
healthy lifestyle
(Dundas et al. 2001, Ledwith and Springett 2010). Recognising
this will be an
important development in moving towards public health
strategies of value to the
African Caribbean and other communities. As Ledwith and

Springett (2010, p. 69)
argue, ‘if we are to build healthy communities, we have to drop
our masks and see
the health and well-being of an individual and a community
from a much broader
perspective’.
Conclusion
The factors identified as barriers to practising healthy lifestyles
may be a microcosm
of wider challenges individuals face. In addition, there is now a
need for more
systematic research into the social construction of social
exclusion and racism, with a
critical evaluation of their impact on healthy lifestyle, including
research into the
living conditions of those who experience discrimination and a
systematic assessment
of the effects it has on an individual’s ability to maintain a
healthy lifestyle. However,
to be of value, an individual’s identity needs to be
acknowledged as being flexible and
shaped by other social and structural contexts. Consequently,
the experiences visible
minority ethnic communities have of maintaining healthy
lifestyles should be
analysed in the context of a changing public discourse on
racialised groups.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the research participants for sharing their
views, and extends special thanks
to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments
and advice.

Note
1. The term ‘Black’ refers to African Caribbean people and
other individuals of African
descent, while the expression ‘visible minority ethnic
communities’ is used to denote
14 B.M.N. Ochieng
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groups that include African, African Caribbean, South Asian
and Chinese people living in
the UK.

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©Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Qualitative
Research Checklist 31.05.13
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The 10 questions on the following pages are designed to help
you think about these issues systematically.
The first two questions are screening questions and can be
answered quickly. If the answer to both is
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are given after each question. These are
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spaces provided.
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There will not be time in the small groups to answer them all
in detail!
©CASP This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution - NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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2
Screening Questions
of the research?
HINT: Consider

HINT: Consider
actions and/or subjective experiences of research
participants
addressing the research goal?
Is it worth continuing?

3
Detailed questions
address the aims of the research?
HINT: Consider
(e.g. have they discussed how they decided which
method to use)?
es
aims of the research?

HINT:Consider
were selected
the most appropriate to provide access to the type of
knowledge sought by the study
some people chose not to take part)
4
5. Was

the research issue?
HINT: Consider
semi-structured interview etc.)
for interview method, is there an indication of how
interviews were conducted, or did they use a topic guide)?
ethods were modified during the study. If so, has
the researcher explained how and why?
material, notes etc)
6. Has the relatio

participants been adequately considered?
HINT: Consider
potential bias and influence during
(a) Formulation of the research questions
(b) Data collection, including sample recruitment and
choice of location
and whether they considered the implications of any changes
in the research design

5
HINT: Consider
explained
to participants for the reader to assess whether ethical standards
were maintained
issues around informed consent or confidentiality or how they
have handled the effects of the study on the participants during
and after the study)
8. Was the data analysis sufficiently rigoro

HINT: Consider
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categories/themes were derived from the data?
e researcher explains how the data presented
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r the researcher critically examined their own role,
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of data for presentation

6
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research question

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HINT: Consider
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