Conceptions of pain among Somali women

Finnström, Berit; Söderhamn, Olle

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03838.x

Cited by 37 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A few, contextually-based studies offer valuable insights on Somali women’s unique health needs and perspectives (Carroll et al, 2007a; Finnström & Söderhamn, 2006; Straus, McEwen, & Hussein, 2009; Uvall, Mohammed, & Dodge, 2009). Learning more about the Somali women who have settled into Minnesota will provide evidence-based ideas for culturally competent care and culturally specific programs.…”

Section: Background On Immigrant Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Somali immigrant women and the American health care system: Discordant beliefs, divergent expectations, and silent worries

Pavlish

Noor

Brandt

2010

Social Science & Medicine

216

220

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The civil war in Somalia resulted in massive resettlement of Somali refugees. The largest diaspora of Somali refugees in the United States currently reside in Minnesota. Partnering with three community organizations in 2007–8, we implemented the Community Connections and Collaboration Project to address health disparities that Somali refugees experienced. Specifically, we examined factors that influenced Somali women’s health experiences. Utilizing a socio-ecological perspective and a social action research design, we conducted six community-based focus groups with 57 Somali women and interviewed 11 key informants including Somali healthcare professionals. Inductively coding, sorting and reducing data into categories, we analyzed each category for specific patterns. The categorical findings on healthcare experiences are reported here. We found that Somali women’s health beliefs related closely to situational factors and contrasted sharply with the biological model that drives Western medicine. These discordant health beliefs resulted in divergent expectations regarding treatment and healthcare interactions. Experiencing unmet expectations, Somali women and their healthcare providers reported multiple frustrations which often diminished perceived quality of health care. Moreover, silent worries about mental health and reproductive decision making surfaced. To provide high quality, transcultural health care, providers must encourage patients to voice their own health explanations, expectations, and worries.

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Section: Background On Immigrant Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Somali immigrant women and the American health care system: Discordant beliefs, divergent expectations, and silent worries

Pavlish

Noor

Brandt

2010

Social Science & Medicine

216

220

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“…Tiilikainen traces a history of relating bodily ills to divine causation and an understanding of bodies as contiguous with their environments. The study of Somali women in Finland by Finnström and Söderhamn found that some Somali women identified pain as a purely physical experience while others interpreted pain as ‘something deeper', imbricated in emotional and bodily experiences 7. These fluctuating definitions of pain make sense considering the Somali word xanuun means both pain and illness 8.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive frameworks of chronic pain: daily remakings of pain and care at a Somali refugee women’s health centre

Campeau

2018

Med Humanities

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Pain is an intensely subjective experience and one that is difficult for healthcare professionals to treat. Chronic pain, often diffuse, cyclical and involving many systems of the body, is often not well treated in a medical system that relies on discrete symptoms, identifiable causes, external pathogens and physician specialisation. Pain has its own problems specific to Somali diaspora populations, where chronic pain is prevalent but often undertreated, and where Somali patients face barriers of access to medicine. This study, conducted in partnership with a Somali women's health centre, seeks to understand Somali women's use of informal and formal networks of healthcare. Drawing from qualitative interviews with Somali, refugee women, this article identifies four emerging frameworks through which participants experience chronic pain: (1) pain as a symptom of exile; (2) pain and the strength to bear pain as issues of faith; (3) medicine as powerful, curative and fluid; (4) medical discrimination and exclusion.

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“…For example, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is reported more commonly in Western than Eastern women, possibly because of the belief that bowel function is private and can be a source of shame [7]. Somali women are expected not to complain of pain and Somali men are expected to be even more enduring than women are [8]. Similarly, Hispanic women in the USA were found to be more tolerant of pain because their family is given a higher priority over their pain [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cognitive Functions in Adults with Chronic Pain: A Comparative Study

Nadar

Jasem

Manee

2016

Pain Research and Management

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Background. Several studies have reported an association between chronic pain and reduction of cognitive abilities of adults living in Western cultures. No literature could be found on the relationship between chronic pain and cognition among Middle Eastern adults. Objective. To compare four of the most commonly reported cognitive domains [memory, attention, processing speed, and executive functioning] among Middle Eastern adults with and without chronic pain. Methods. This matched group comparative study included 69 community residing and functionally independent Middle Eastern adults. Forty participants had chronic pain and 29 were pain-free. We administered five standardized cognitive assessments that are independent of culture and language to measure variable tasks of memory, attention, processing speed, and executive functioning. The study was conducted in a rehabilitation research setting with a controlled environment. Results. Evidence of decreased cognitive processing was found in patients with chronic pain. The chronic pain participants performed significantly worse than the pain-free participants on the cognitive measures of long-term memory, selective attention, processing speed, and executive functioning. Conclusion. The effect of Middle Eastern culture on the cognitive abilities of patients with chronic pain was negligible. Despite the wide variations between Eastern and Western cultures, the performance of our Middle Eastern participants in this study was consistent with performance of Western adults reported in previous studies.

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Conceptions of pain among Somali women

Cited by 37 publications

References 14 publications

Somali immigrant women and the American health care system: Discordant beliefs, divergent expectations, and silent worries

Somali immigrant women and the American health care system: Discordant beliefs, divergent expectations, and silent worries

Adaptive frameworks of chronic pain: daily remakings of pain and care at a Somali refugee women’s health centre

The Cognitive Functions in Adults with Chronic Pain: A Comparative Study

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