In the 21st century, the mobility of world population has posed greater challenges to healthcare practitioners, since they are facing an increasingly diverse patient population from all over the world. At the same time, patients also find it difficult to access and utilize quality health care services in a culturally diverse context. This study examines the role of culture in Chinese international students’ health-seeking behaviours in Canada. The study explores any barriers/perceived barriers that Chinese international students may confront when accessing health care which can prevent them from obtaining quality health care services in Canada. To this end, an intercultural health communication model was employed as a theoretical framework, and semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. While contributing to existing literature on health communication and culture, this study also hopes to contribute to providing Canadian universities and institutions important information regarding Chinese international students’ access to and utilization of health care services with the hope of enhancing the quality of ethnic health care and promoting better health outcomes.

This study focuses on African male refugees and asylum seekers in Pretoria/Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa. Beyond the motives for their displacements, refugees, carrying different kinds of disturbances into their ‘new home’, seek health and therapy, because the very condition of being refugees can be understood as a health-seeking condition. An ethnographic study was conducted to investigate the different means, therapies and cures used by refugees from other African countries in order to correct the fractions of their lives that have been disrupted on their journey to becoming refugees. The study found that these male refugees associated health with self-fulfilment or well-being and this couldn’t be achieved without removing the stumbling blocks that were in their ways. Being in a foreign country and having been through humiliation and other disturbances, the need to consult certain institutions became a necessity, thus challenging the ‘classic’ constructions of masculinity. Being far from home increased the level of vulnerability and the need thereof to seek help. Belief in a magico-religious system being part of African healing systems and part of the corollaries of globalisation, modernity and urbanism; explanations for various causes of misfortune and cures were found in consulting pastors, healers, diviners, astrologists. Some of those healers and religious leaders from other African countries, being refugees were also in search of well-being, thus triggering the creation of their new professions in the land of refuge. Copyright / Dissertation (Master of Arts)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Anthropology and Archaeology / unrestricted

Health-seeking behaviour encompasses the actions, thought processes and decision-making involved in establishing and maintaining a healthy physiological state. As such, various studies have investigated the factors that influence health-seeking behaviour. Such factors included demographic, socio-economic, political, religious and cultural factors. It was however, found that there was a lack of research regarding the specific factors of Charismatic Christians that affect health-seeking behaviour, thus guiding the research question. The aim of this study was to explore the spiritual factors influencing health-seeking behaviours of the Charismatic Christians in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Through a paradigm of interpretivism, research was conducted using a qualitative approach to explore and describe how the spiritual factors of Charismatic Christians influence health-seeking behaviour. An instrumental case study design was utilised in order to gain insight into the phenomenon of health-seeking behaviour, to create recommendations to facilitate practice and to refine theory to increase health-seeking behaviour among Charismatic Christians. This was done through the use of one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with participants, who were incorporated into the study through voluntary, purposive sampling. Previous studies found various factors affecting health-seeking behaviour, amongst these were religious factors. Furthermore, there were several studies that explored the health-seeking behaviours of Charismatic Christians, however, this was mainly focused on the mental health domain. To date, little research has been done into the general health-seeking behaviours of Charismatic Christians, which indicated the gap for the research study. The findings of the study both supported and contradicted the specific factors affecting health-seeking behaviour, found in the national and international studies in the literature review. However, the study agreed with the previous studies, that spiritual factors do affect the health-seeking behaviours of Charismatic Christians in Gauteng. It can be concluded that participants are not averse to seeking professional healthcare services that are easily accessible, however, unless the symptoms are severe, participants will engage in other methods of self-care prior to seeking healthcare services. Secondly, Charismatic Christianity was found to encourage health-seeking behaviour through teachings of self-control, self-respect, and healing through medicine. Thirdly, it was concluded that in some instances, Charismatic Christianity could deter individuals from health-seeking behaviour as they have a belief in divine healing from God, thus it is not necessary for them to seek formal healthcare services. Lastly, it was concluded that participants have had limited contact with social workers in the healthcare setting, thus limiting their knowledge regarding the role of social work, however, they are willing to engage with social workers in the healthcare settings, if services adhere to ethical standards. Based on the conclusions of the study, it was recommended that the healthcare team, including social workers, be knowledgeable about the spiritual factors influencing health-seeking behaviour, as well as remain non-judgemental and allow for autonomy of patients. It was further recommended that preventative healthcare be encouraged and promoted within healthcare settings. It was lastly recommended that patients have access to information regarding symptoms and severity, to encourage individuals to seek professional healthcare timeously. / Mini Dissertation (MSW (Healthcare))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Social Work and Criminology / MSW / Unrestricted

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Disparities exist in the health-seeking behavior of African American (AA) women in the United States. Specifically, AA women 40 years and older often do not adhere to guidelines for breast cancer screening because of demographic and socioeconomic factors that have impacted health disparities. The purpose of this study was to research negative health-seeking behavior toward early-stage breast cancer detection in AA women 40 years and older. The main research questions addressed whether there is a relationship between negative health-seeking behavior, operationally defined as lack of a personal doctor, lack of health insurance, and lack of doctor visits within the past 12 months, and early-stage breast cancer detection, operationally defined as lack of mammogram screening within the past 2 years, in AA women 40 years and older. This quantitative study was guided by the health belief model. A cross-sectional design was used along with secondary data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Wald chi-square was used to examine the relationship between the dependent variables and the independent variable. The relationship between lack of a personal doctor, lack of health insurance, lack of doctor visits within the past 12 months, and lack of mammogram screening within the past 2 years was statistically significant at p < .05. The findings based on the significance between the variables confirmed that negative health- seeking behavior affects early-stage breast cancer detection in AA women 40 years and older. The results of this study may inform the development of educational programs that are instrumental in promoting and improving mammogram screening and early-stage breast cancer detection among AA women age 40 years and older.

Men are less likely than women to seek help from health services providers regarding the health issues they face. In the United States, of the various race/ethnicity populations, Black American men are least likely to seek health related help, which is reflected in the substantially higher mortality and morbidity rates in Black American men compared to other populations. Guided by the social epidemiological framework, this study examined the relationship between social network measure and health help-seeking behavior among foreign-born and U.S.-born Black American men of West African descent residing in the state of Rhode Island. A cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling method was used in executing the study. A questionnaire that was developed based on validated instruments such as the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ) and Social Network Index (SNI) was employed in collecting data. Ordinal logistic regression and the Chi-square test of independence were used to assess the associations between health help-seeking behavior and social networks. Findings revealed a significant relationship between social network measure and selected categories of general help-seeking measures. For example, foreign-born participants compared to their U.S-born counterparts were more likely to have a high social network size, with respect to future intent to seek help from both formal and informal help sources. The results of this study may drive social change by providing evidence that is vital to our understanding of the health-related help seeking behavior of Black American men in general and Black American men of West African descent in particular.

Health can be described as both a product and a process of life, and is necessary for human wellbeing, overall quality of life and productivity. While health is generally desirable, many factors affect health and health outcomes of individuals and populations the world over. Virtually all individuals will be faced with one health problem or another during their lifetime, that requires some form of health care intervention. Whatever their reasons for seeking care, all health care consumers share a common interest – a desire to get better. In a pluralistic health care environment where different avenues exist for seeking and receiving health care, differential choice of care may be influenced by sociodemographic and related factors. To the extent that the available avenues for seeking and receiving health care do not offer the same opportunities for improving health, significantly different health outcomes may be realized for comparable conditions for which different types and volume of health care are sought and received. Understanding the factors that influence health-seeking behaviors among various populations may therefore, be an important first step in designing intervention programs that nudge health consumers toward better health-seeking behaviors with the goal to improving health and health outcomes among these populations. The purpose of this research was to develop a research instrument for studying health-seeking behaviors based on the Health Belief Model, and to use the instrument to study the factors that influence/predict health-seeking behaviors among Ghanaians. Using a convenience sample of 504 participants recruited from the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Volta and Northern Regions, analyses of the data showed that different sociodemographic characteristics such as age group, gender and health insurance status as well as selected modified constructs of the Health Belief Model such as Perceived Barriers to mainstream care, variously and collectively influence health-seeking behaviors at government and private health facilities, self-medication with herbal and pharmaceutical drugs, faith healing and care from traditional/herbal practitioners. Based on the findings of this study, the author concludes that health-seeking behaviors in Ghana are influenced by a multiplicity of factors including sociodemographic characteristics. Subsequently, recommendations for a more extensive study with a complementary qualitative enquiry are made in order to gain a more wholistic insight of the drivers of health-seeking behaviors in Ghana.

Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a chronic manifestation of schistosomiasis, a waterborne parasitic infection, and is estimated to impact 56 million women predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, there is scarce literature on FGS and related health-seeking behaviour (HSB) among at-risk women. The objective of this mixed-method study is to understand the socio-cultural determinants of HSB and the health information trust networks for women at-risk of FGS in Ghana. A cross-sectional survey and twelve focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in the North Tongu and Weija Districts of Ghana. A total of 863 cross-sectional surveys and 12 FGDs were administered in both districts. There was an overall lack of awareness of FGS among adult women (38.9%). Only 48.8% of women reported HSB from the 86 women who choose to talk about their FGS-related symptoms. HSB was significantly associated with monthly steady income (p-value: 0.036) and level of education (p-value: 0.15,0.27), when controlling for age group and source of trusted health information. Some of the determining themes for HSB included: environmental and systemic context, shared norms, and apprehensions. Active and passive health information-seeking behaviour also emerged through the FGDs. Taking a mixed-method approach allowed for the appraisal of both methodologies and provided validity to the results. The lack of awareness of FGS indicates the need for tailored health information campaigns in endemic communities. More research is required on the FGS diagnostic and treatment capabilities of health facilities to understand their impact on HSB of women. This investigation finds that social, environmental, and cultural determinants are involved in the HSB of women at-risk for FGS, in North Tongu and Weija.

The growing Thai community in Eastern Massachusetts has an unofficial ethnic enclave that surrounds the neighborhood of Allston/Brighton. Studies of Thai communities in the United States indicate that Thai-Americans have limited access to quality health care in the United States due to factors that contribute to health disparities such as language barriers and cultural beliefs. As a result, Thai people have different approaches to how they treat illnesses through traditional Thai medicine (TTM), Western medicine (also called biomedicine), or a mixture of both medical systems. This study examines healthways Thai/Thai Americans in Eastern Massachusetts draw on in response to different illnesses. In-depth stories of how this community engages in illness prevention and responses to the experiences of illness illuminated by Thai people’s approaches to different medical systems helps us understand how they present their values when seeking medical care. I argue that responses to various illness episodes experienced by members of the Thai community in Eastern Massachusetts influence perceived health and health-seeking behaviors. Factors that contribute to Thai-American health practices include: religion, sociocultural elements (cultural identity, generational differences, cross-cultural differences, structural violence), and Thai constructs of illness and well-being.