COVID-19: information access, trust and adherence to health advice among migrants in Norway

Abstract

Background Migrants in Norway bear a higher burden of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization as compared to non-migrants. The aim of our study was to understand how migrants perceive their own health risk, how they access information regarding the preventive measures, the degree of trust in this information, in the Norwegian authorities and the news media, and migrants’ adherence to authorities’ recommendations regarding the pandemic. Methods An online survey was performed between May and July 2020 among 529 Polish, Arabic, Somali, Tamil, and Spanish-speaking migrants in Norway. For each outcome presented in the aims, unweighted and weighted descriptive analyses were performed for all migrants together and for each language group. Results Sixty-one percent of migrants perceived their health as excellent or very good, with the lowest value (42%) in the Tamil group and the highest among Somalians (85%). The majority of respondents (82%) felt they had received sufficient information. Press conferences from the government, health authorities’ websites, and Norwegian news media were the preferred channels of information for all groups. Most migrants reported a high level of adherence to preventive measures (88%) and trust in Norwegian authorities (79%). However, there were variations among groups regarding the importance of sources of information and level of trust, which was lowest for the Polish group. Conclusion Migrants in Norway reported receiving sufficient information about COVID-19 and high adherence to preventive measures. However, the levels of trust in the information sources, the services and the authorities varied among the groups. Understanding how migrants are dealing with this pandemic is crucial to improve the dissemination of information and trust in the health authorities for the different groups.

Understanding the excess COVID-19 burden among immigrants in Norway

“…The proportion of immigrants considering themselves to be in a vulnerable group for COVID-19 has been shown to vary with country background. 24 Households with several generations living together are more common among immigrants than among Norwegian-born and could be one reason that elderly and vulnerable groups have not been able to keep social distance to a large degree. However, studies of secondary attach rate within households indicate that this is a phenomena but still has limited explanatory value.…”

“…The lower risk of COVID-19 in this group compared with other immigrants supports the hypothesis that language may play a role. Previous surveys in Norway suggest that immigrants generally perceive that they have access to the information they need, 24 , 26 but also that some information can be hard to understand. 22 Especially elderly immigrants without children nearby to help and newly arrived immigrants may have difficulties in accessing information.…”

“…26 Immigrants also report to follow recommendations about social distancing and good hand hygiene as carefully as nonimmigrants. 24 , 27…”

Occupational role and COVID-19 among foreign-born healthcare workers in Sweden: a registry-based study

“…As we do not have data on COVID-19 precautionary measures among foreign-born dentists, it is challenging to estimate the extent to which better or worse adherence to COVID-19 prevention and control measures influenced our findings. While previous studies 33 , 34 reported high adherence to COVID-19 recommendations among the foreign-born population in general, it remains unclear how different foreign-born HCWs responded to workplace COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Considering that dentists in this study had a lower HR for COVID-19 infection and a higher HR for COVID-19-related hospitalization than most other HCWs (also seen when the data were restricted to only the first wave), it is possible that they may be reasonably well-protected against infection, but if they get infected, the dose may be higher which could increase severity and hospitalization.…”

Self-imposed social isolation among clients of social care organisations in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…[ 35 ]. A Norwegian study found that most migrants reported a high level of adherence to preventive measures (88%) and trust in Norwegian authorities (79%) [ 36 ]. The study reports, however, that there were variations among groups regarding the importance of sources of information and level of trust, which was lowest for the Polish group.…”