Seeking healthcare in the home country: Reasons given by Kosovar and Russian migrants living in Finland, and by Finns living abroad
GASHI, FIDAIM (2009)
2009
International Health, HES
Lääketieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Medicine
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2009-05-26
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-19904
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-19904
Tiivistelmä
A reasonable amount of information exist from previous studies about Mexican and Chinese migrants in the United States, migrants from the countries of former Yugoslavia in Slovenia, and Somali migrants in Finland seek healthcare in their countries of origin along with healthcare systems in their host countries. As the number of migrant population has been increasing steadily in Finland, it is an imperative that Finnish healthcare personnel should have clear understanding about migrants' health-seeking behaviour, including travelling to their countries of origin, in order to be able to provide appropriate and relevant healthcare.
The aims of this study were to find out and describe various factors that motivate study participants to seek healthcare in their home countries, to reveal other significant characteristic features related to seeking healthcare in their home countries, and to find similarities and differences amongst the respondent groups. To realize the aims of the study, a qualitative study was conducted with 25 participants comprising of three different countries. Interviews were semi-structured using Interview Guide, voice-recorded, and took place in Finland. Content analysis was used to analyze gathered data.
A wide range of factors that were clustered into patient, provider, and system levels motivated respondents from all the three groups to seek healthcare in their home countries along with the usage of healthcare services in the host countries. Making use of the social networks to arrange appointments with the healthcare providers in the home country and preferences for private sector were other common reported factors by all of the study participants. Usually healthcare seeking in the home country is combined with visiting relatives and other family members though sometimes exclusive healthcare trips are made for certain healthcare problems.
Seeking healthcare is a very complex phenomenon in the healthcare behaviour paradigm which is also multidimensional. As a person's life condition fluctuates constantly, it is hard to predict or generalize the study to the whole population.
The aims of this study were to find out and describe various factors that motivate study participants to seek healthcare in their home countries, to reveal other significant characteristic features related to seeking healthcare in their home countries, and to find similarities and differences amongst the respondent groups. To realize the aims of the study, a qualitative study was conducted with 25 participants comprising of three different countries. Interviews were semi-structured using Interview Guide, voice-recorded, and took place in Finland. Content analysis was used to analyze gathered data.
A wide range of factors that were clustered into patient, provider, and system levels motivated respondents from all the three groups to seek healthcare in their home countries along with the usage of healthcare services in the host countries. Making use of the social networks to arrange appointments with the healthcare providers in the home country and preferences for private sector were other common reported factors by all of the study participants. Usually healthcare seeking in the home country is combined with visiting relatives and other family members though sometimes exclusive healthcare trips are made for certain healthcare problems.
Seeking healthcare is a very complex phenomenon in the healthcare behaviour paradigm which is also multidimensional. As a person's life condition fluctuates constantly, it is hard to predict or generalize the study to the whole population.