Health and Culture: Factors Influencing Immigrant Women’s Health Beliefs and Health Behaviour

Alla Kushniryk 1 *, Stan Orlov 1, Emma Wertz 2
More Detail
1 Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada
2 Kennesaw State University, U.S.A
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 104-125. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/2582
OPEN ACCESS   1974 Views   1197 Downloads   Published online: 26 Jan 2017
Download Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of culture on immigrant women’s health beliefs and attitudes toward health and cancer. The survey of 247 women was conducted in Canada and the USA. We found that acculturation played an important role in how immigrant women viewed cancer, and that their attitudes toward Western medicine and medical examinations changed with the amount of time they spent in North America. The role of family in health decision making was also found to be an important factor in health-related decisions for immigrant women.
Keywords: acculturation, culture, immigrant women’s health, health beliefs, health behavior

CITATION

Kushniryk, A., Orlov, S., & Wertz, E. (2017). Health and Culture: Factors Influencing Immigrant Women’s Health Beliefs and Health Behaviour. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 7(1), 104-125. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/2582

REFERENCES

  • Ashing-Giwa, K. T., Padilla, G., Tejero, G., Kraemer, J., Wright, K., Coscarelli, A., Clayton, S., Williams, I., & Hills, D. (2004). Understanding the breast cancer experience of women: A qualitative study of African American, Asian America, Latina and Caucasian cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 13, 408-424. doi:10.1002/pon.750
  • Ayala, G. X., Baquero, B., & Klinger, S. (2008). A systematic review of the relationship between acculturation and diet among Latinos in the United States: Implications for future research. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108(8), 1330-1344.
  • Baron-Epel, O., Friedman, N., & Lernau, O. (2009).Fatalism and mammography in a multicultural population. Oncology Nursing Forum, 36(3), 353-361. doi:10.1188/09.ONF.353-361
  • Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x
  • Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H., & Dasen, P. R. (1992). Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Blake, S. M., Ledsky, R., Goodenow, C., & O'Donnell, L. (2001).Recency of immigration, substance use, and sexual behavior among Massachusetts adolescents. American Journal of Public Health, 91(5), 794.
  • Bottorff, J. L., Johnson, J. L., &Venables, L. J. (2001). Voices of immigrant South Asian women: Expressions of health concerns. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 12(4), 393-403. doi:10.1353/hpu.2010.0742
  • Chien, L. Y., George, M. A., & Armstrong, R. W. (2002). Country of birth and language spoken at home in relation to illicit substance use.Canadian Journal of Public Health, 93(3), 188-92.
  • Donnelly, T. T., McKellin, W., Hislop, G., &Long, B. (2009). Socioeconomic influences on Vietnamese-Canadian women’s breast and cervical cancer prevention practices: A social determinant’s perspective. Social Work in Public Health, 24, 454-476. doi:10.1080/19371910802678772
  • Erwin, D. O., Treviño, M., Saad-Harfouche, F. G., Rodriguez, E. M., Gage, E., & Jandorf, L. (2010). Contextualizing diversity and culture within cancer control interventions for Latinas: Changing interventions, not cultures. Social Science& Medicine, 71, 693- 701. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.005
  • Espinosa de los Monteros, K., & Gallo, L. C. (2011). The relevance of fatalism in the study of Latinas’ cancer screening behavior: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18(4), 310-318. doi:10.1007/s12529010-9119-4
  • Fuentes-Afflick, E., &Hessol, N. A. (2008). Acculturation and body mass among Latina women. Journal of Women's Health, 17(1), 67-73.
  • Garcia-Maas, L. D. (1999). Intergenerational analysis of dietary practices and health perceptions of Hispanic women and their adult daughters. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 10(3), 213-219.
  • Ghebre, R. G., Sewali, B., Osman, S., Adawe, A., Nguyen, H. T., Okuyemi, K. S., & Joseph, A. (2014). Cervical cancer: Barriers to screening in the Somali community in Minnesota. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 1-7. doi:10.1007/s10903- 0140080-1
  • Green, L., Lewis, R. K., Wang, M. Q., Person, S., & Rivers, B. (2004). Powerlessness, destiny, and control: The influence on health behaviors of African Americans. Journal of Community Health, 29(1), 15-27. doi:0094-5145/04/0200-015/0
  • Grewal, S., Bottorff, J. L., & Hilton, B. A. (2005).The influence of family on immigrant South Asian women's health. Journal of Family Nursing, 11, 242-263. doi:10.1177/1074840705278622
  • Guendelman, S. (1998). “Health and Disease Among Hispanics.” Pp. 277-301 in Handbook of Immigrant Health, Loue S. (Ed.) Springer.
  • Guendelman, S., & Abrams, B. (1995). Dietary intake among Mexican-American women: Generational differences and a comparison with white non-Hispanic women. American Journal of Public Health, 85(1), 20-25.
  • Gurm, B. M., Joanne Stephen, J., MacKenzie, G., Doll, R. Barroetavenac, M. C., & Cadell, S. (2008). Understanding Canadian Punjabi-speaking South Asian women’s experience of breast cancer: A qualitative study.International Journal of Nursing Studies,45, 266- 276. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.08.023
  • Hammoud, M. M., White, C. B., & Fetters, M. D. (2005). Opening cultural doors: providing culturally sensitive healthcare to Arab American and American Muslim patients. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 193(4), 1307-1311.
  • Kleinman, A. (1980). Patients and healers in the context of culture: An exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
  • Lara, M., Gamboa, C., Kahramanian, M. I., Morales, L. S., & Hayes Bautista, D. E. (2005). Acculturation and Latino health in the United States: A review of the literature and its sociopolitical context. Annual Review of Public Health, 26, 367-397.
  • Lee, M. C. (2000). Knowledge, barriers, and motivators related to cervical cancer screening among Korean-American women: A focus group approach. Cancer nursing, 23(3), 168-175.
  • Lee, S., O’Neill, A. H., Ihara, E. S., & Chae, D. H. (2013). Change in self-reported health status among immigrants in the United States: Associations with measures of acculturation. Plos ONE, 8(10), 1. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076494
  • Lesser, I. A., Gasevic, D., & Lear, S. A. (2014).The association between acculturation and dietary patterns of South Asian immigrants. Plos ONE, 9(2), 1-6. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088495
  • Liang, W., Wang, J. H., Chen, M., Feng, S., Lee, M., Schwartz, M. D., Pasick, R. J., & Mandelblatt, J. S. (2008). Developing and validating a measure of Chinese cultural views of health and cancer. Health Education Behaviour, 35(3), 361-375. doi:10.1177/1090198106294893
  • Liang, W., Yuan, E., Mandelblatt., J. S., &Pasick, R. J. (2004). How do older Chinese women view health and cancer screening? Results from focus groups and implications for interventions. Ethnicity & Health, 9(3), 283-304. doi:10.1080/1355785042000250111
  • Maximova, K., O’Loughlin, J., & Gray-Donald, K. (2011). Healthy weight advantage lost in one generation among immigrant elementary schoolchildren in multi-ethnic, disadvantaged, inner-city neighborhoods in Montreal, Canada. Annals of Epidemiology, 21(4), 238-244. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.01.002
  • Mayo, R. M., Hunter, A., & Parker, V. G. (2003).Fatalism toward breast cancer among the women of Ghana. Health Care For Women International, 24(7), 608-616.
  • McDonald, J. T., & Kennedy, S. (2004). Insights into the ‘healthy immigrant effect’: health status and health service use of immigrants to Canada. Social science & medicine, 59(8), 1613-1627.
  • Moy, B., Park, E. R., Feibelmann, S., Chiang, S., & Weissman, J. S. (2006). Barriers to repeat mammography: Cultural perspectives of African American, Asian, and Hispanic women. Psycho-Oncology, 15, 623-634. doi:10.1002/pon.994
  • Peragallo, N. P., Fox, P. G., & Alba, M. L. (2000).Acculturation and breast self‐examination among immigrant Latina women in the USA. International Nursing Review, 47(1), 38-45.
  • Petti, Y. M., & Cowell, J. M. (2011).An assessment of measures of body image, body attitude, acculturation, and weight status among Mexican American women. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 23(2), 84-91.
  • Rashidi, A., & Rajaram, S. S. (2000) Middle Eastern Asian Islamic women and breast selfexamination: Needs assessment. Cancer Nursing, 23(1), 64-70.
  • Remennick, L. (2003). I have no time for potential troubles”: Russian immigrant women and breast cancer screening in Israel. Journal of Immigrant Health, 5(4), 153-163.
  • Remennick, L. (2006). The challenge of early breast cancer detection among immigrant and minority women in multicultural societies.The Breast Journal, 12(1), 103-110. doi:10.1111/j.1075-122X.2006.00204.x
  • Resick, L. (2008). The meaning of health among midlife Russian-speaking women. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 40(3), 248-253. doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2008.00233.x
  • Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. ( Eds.). (2006). The Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Singh, G. K., & Siahpush, M. (2001).All-cause and cause-specific mortality of immigrants and native born in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 91(3), 392.
  • Singh, G. K., & Siahpush, M. (2002). Ethnic-immigrant differentials in health behaviors, morbidity, and cause-specific mortality in the United States: an analysis of two national data bases. Human Biology, 83-109.
  • Stephen, E., Foote, K., Hendershot, G., & Shoenborn, C. (1994). Health of the foreign-born population: United States 1989-90. Advance data from vital and health statistics, 241, 1-12.
  • Thomson, M. D., & Hoffman-Goetz, L. (2009). Defining and measuring acculturation: a systematic review of public health studies with Hispanic populations in the United States. Social Science &Medicine, 69(7), 983-991.
  • Trill, M. D., & Holland, J. (1993). Cross-cultural differences in the care of patients with cancer: A review. General Hospital Psychiatry, 15(1), 21-30.
  • Vahabi, M. (2010). Iranian women's perception and beliefs about breast cancer.Health Care for Women International, 31(9), 817- 830. doi:10.1080/07399331003725515
  • Weigers, M. E., & Sherraden, M. S. (2001). A critical examination of acculturation: The impact of health behaviors, social support and economic resources on birth weight among women of Mexican descent. The International Migration Review, 35(3), 804839.
  • Wright, E. K. (2008). How Mexican-American women define health: Cultural beliefs and practices in a non-native environment (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
  • Wu, T. Y., Hsieh, H. F., & West, B. T. (2008). Demographics and perceptions of barriers toward breast cancer screening among Asian-American women. Women & Health, 48(3), 261-281. doi:10.1080/03630240802463384
  • Yoong, W., Wagley, A., Fong, C., Chukwuma, C., & Nauta, M. (2004). Obstetric performance of ethnic Kosovo Albanian asylum seekers in London: a case-control study. Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 24(5), 510-512.