The Impact of Culture and Ethnicity on Women's Perceived Role in Society and Their Attendant Health Beliefs

Abstract

Cultural background and ethnicity need to be at the forefront of a doctor's mind when thinking about the way women present and deal with health issues for themselves and their families. Despite the obvious fact that women make up about half the population, their health needs may be different to the expectations and processes of the model of care used by the majority of health professionals. Some of these differences are likely to be due to social structures but women's personal history and health beliefs in general will impact on their health care in ways that may lead them even further from achieving healthy outcomes. In general practices where a large proportion of the population is from different cultures, interacting with women with complex health care needs requires an awareness of the underlying beliefs of both doctor and patient. To understand a woman's health issues in her new country, the doctor must acknowledge that she may face discrimination at three levels: as a woman, as a migrant and as an ethnic minority.

Preventing and Experiencing Ischemic Heart Disease as a Woman: State of the Science

“…A woman’s ethnic or culture background creates complex norms and expectations that impact all aspects of life including marital status, childbearing, caregiving roles, food preparation, educational level, job choices, wage rates, health beliefs/practices, amount of political power, and degree of social influence. 22 Therefore, health care providers must be prepared to address the influence of ethnicity and culture on a women’s health and well-being. The striking differences in IHD prevalence rates whereby Black women have the highest prevalence rates as compared to Hispanic and White women 8 is evidence that ethnicity and culture identifies groups of women who are known to suffer a disproportionate burden of (CVD).…”

What do women want? Migrant and refugee women’s preferences for the delivery of sexual and reproductive healthcare and information

“…Migrant and refugee communities are also less likely to know about or access services for SRH (Åkerman et al 2017) and report migrating from contexts where information about SRH is not readily available (Svensson, Carlzén, and Agardh 2017). Poor access to SRH services is problematic as it provides an opportunity for women to obtain adequate information for informed decision-making, associated with health-promoting and disease prevention sexual and reproductive behaviours (Benson et al 2010). It is also associated with positive mental health outcomes and greater quality of life (WHO 2009).…”