Strengths and limitations of the study This study addressed an important and previously underexplored subject in health research.20 We used a wide range of qualitative techniques on a sample that is likely to have included the least acculturated members of British Bangladeshi society, since we recruited from practices with Bangladeshi general practitioners, nurses, or advocates, we required neither literacy (in any language) nor spoken English or Bengali for participation in the study (indeed, 24 of the 40 informants spoke only the Sylheti dialect), and the response rate for the individual interviews was high (91%). Furthermore, our main field worker was an experienced anthropologist who has wo rked with this community for 25 years and speaks Sylheti as his first language.