International Perspective on Health Literacy and Health Equity: Factors That Influence the Former Soviet Union Immigrants

Abstract

Among the world’s 272 million international migrants, more than 25 million are from the former Soviet Union (FSU), yet there is a paucity of literature available about FSU immigrants’ health literacy. Besides linguistic and cultural differences, FSU immigrants often come from a distinct healthcare system affecting their ability to find, evaluate, process, and use health information in the host countries. In this scoping review and commentary, we describe the health literacy issues of FSU immigrants and provide an overview of FSU immigrants’ health literacy based on the integrated health literacy model. We purposefully consider the three most common locations where FSU immigrants have settled: the USA, Germany, and Israel. For context, we describe the healthcare systems of the three host countries and the two post-Soviet countries to illustrate the contribution of system-level factors on FSU immigrants’ health literacy. We identify research gaps and set a future research agenda to help understand FSU immigrants’ health literacy across countries. Amidst the ongoing global population changes related to international migration, this article contributes to a broad-scope understanding of health literacy among FSU immigrants related to the system-level factors that may also apply to other immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Health Literacy Research Around the World: More Important Than Ever in a Time of COVID-19

“…In "Adolescent Health Literacy in Beijing and Melbourne: A Cross-Cultural Comparison", Guo and colleagues [83] consider adolescent health literacy from a cross-cultural perspective. In "Factors that Influence the Former Soviet Union Immigrants", Kostareva et al [84] consider the unique health literacy needs of those from a specific cultural context in whatever country they arrive. In "Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Health Literacy", Latteck and Bruland [85] present findings from three different studies on the health literacy of particular vulnerable groups.…”

“…We have research from Europe (e.g., Lithuania, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden), North America (e.g., USA, Canada), and Asia (e.g., Vietnam, Taiwan) along with research from Africa (Ghana), which is understudied in health literacy. We also consider cross country comparisons-comparing Beijing and Melbourne in the study by Guo and colleagues [83] and the health literacy of former Soviet Union immigrants across the globe in the study by Kostareva et al [84].…”

A Multilingual Integrative Review of Health Literacy in Former Soviet Union, Russian-Speaking Immigrants

“…A substantial amount of literature describes FSU immigrants’ background, migration reasons, and processes. These contextual factors were recently summarized in relation to health literacy, particularly noting the importance of access to and utilization of preventative and medical care in their host countries and differences across healthcare systems [ 32 ].…”

“…Health insurance literacy is defined as “the degree to which individuals have the knowledge, ability, and confidence to find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan for their own (or their family’s) financial and health circumstances, and use the plan once enrolled” [ 46 ]. This topic is particularly important in the USA, given the complexity of its health insurance system, although Germany and Israel also have private health insurance options that go beyond universal health coverage [ 32 , 47 , 48 ]. Unfamiliar healthcare systems could be particularly confusing to FSU immigrants whose health care experiences originate from the Soviet and post-Soviet healthcare systems [ 32 ].…”

“…This topic is particularly important in the USA, given the complexity of its health insurance system, although Germany and Israel also have private health insurance options that go beyond universal health coverage [ 32 , 47 , 48 ]. Unfamiliar healthcare systems could be particularly confusing to FSU immigrants whose health care experiences originate from the Soviet and post-Soviet healthcare systems [ 32 ]. The identification of articles on this topic was an additional study goal.…”