Psycho-Social Contributions to Higher Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Prevalence among South Asian Immigrants Living in Canada

This thesis studies psycho-social aspects of the experiences of South Asian immigrants (SAI) in Canada and how these may be related to the elevated presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in this group. It does so by examining the way in which variables such as education and income levels, the gap between education and income levels, and psycho-social variables related to stress, predict the presence of T2DM in this group as compared to two other social groups: Chinese Immigrants (CI) and Canadian born whites (CBW). The results of this research support the hypotheses laid out for this dissertation that exposure to education/income gap increases risk for T2DM, and that SAI have higher risk for T2DM compared to CI and CBW.