essentialist discourse infers unchanging characteristics to ethnic group members, exaggerating differences and underestimating similarities between groups .
this study has found that there are shared characteristics and cultural practices across these ethnic groups.
there were also similarities in the cultural practices across these adherence given by UK South Asian and white british participants,
which serve to limit essentialisation of South Asian older adults.
However,
there were some specific issues for South Asian participants.
Acknowledging internal differences that can exist within ethnic groups is important.
if these internal differences go unrecognised it may discourage uptake and subsequent adherence of physical activity programmes forolder adults.
for example,
for South Asian participants,
barriers to physical activity were reported to be related to lack of fluency in English,
which impeded/restricted participation and attendance in physical activity programmes.