Objectives: Inequitable pregnancy care experiences and outcomes disproportionately affect refugee background women in Australia. Culturally safe care is essential for achieving health equity, however, cultural safety can only be determined by the person receiving care. To our knowledge, women of refugee background in Australia are yet to be asked what culturally safe pregnancy care is to them. Specifically, this study aimed to explore what culturally safe pregnancy care is to Karen women (from Burma) of refugee background.
Design: A photovoice study founded on community-based participatory research principles was undertaken with a Karen community of refugee background living in Victoria, Australia. A community advisory group was established, guiding study design and conduct. Five S'gaw Karen-speaking women with experience of pregnancy care in Australia were invited to take photos within their community. Participants shared their photos and stories with each other in four online discussion groups.
Results: Reflexive thematic analysis guided by a critical constructionist lens developed three themes: Building foundations for belonging; cultivating reciprocal curiosity; and storytelling as an expression of self and shared power. These themes sit within the overarching theme When I can be my whole authentic self, I feel safe and know that I belong.
Conclusion: When Karen women can embrace their cultural and spiritual identity without fear of discrimination, including racism, culturally safe pregnancy care is possible. This study contributes to the design and delivery of maternity services by providing insights that can enhance equitable and culturally safe pregnancy care for Karen women of refugee background.
Dementia can be overwhelming to families and their caregivers. Informal caregiving is a widespread mode of providing dementia care in African American communities, yet impact of caregiving on informal or family caregivers in African American communities is burdensome. This study aimed to describe the lived experiences of informal caregivers of African American People Living with Dementia (PLWD) to understand their perceptions of dementia and dementia care, caregiver support needs, and service needs. Interpretive phenomenological qualitative inquiry guided this study to understand caregivers' experiences and needs. Ten family caregivers of African American PLWD in the community participated in this study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and a diary study approach to document and interpret caregivers' experiences. The data analysis was based on procedures of content analysis. Four major themes emerged from the in-depth interviews: caregiver burden, familism, lack of information and community-based resources, and desire and need for culturally appropriate community-based resources. Triangulated diary entry data complemented the in-depth interviews with similar themes. This study highlights how African American informal caregivers of PLWD face various caregiving needs and challenges in dementia care including lack of culturally appropriate community resources and information. The study illustrates that African American cultural beliefs of familism are significant aspects of their caregiving experience and their coping strategies. These study results provide a useful foundation for various stakeholders to develop culturally targeted interventions and programs to support African American informal caregivers and their family members with dementia.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether social support from extended family and church members moderate the association between chronic stress exposure and sleep quality in a nationally representative sample of African American adults.
Design: Data from African American respondents aged 18 and older were drawn from the National Survey of American Life-Reinterview. The analytic sample for this study included 1,372 African American adults who attended religious services at least a few times a year, as the church-based relationship measures were only assessed for these individuals. Self-reported sleep quality was assessed by sleep satisfaction, trouble falling asleep, and restless sleep. Chronic stress exposure was measured by a nine-item index. OLS and logistic regression were used to estimate the relationship between chronic stress exposure, extended family and church relationships, and sleep quality.
Results: The data indicated that chronic stress exposure was associated with decreased sleep satisfaction, increased likelihood of trouble falling asleep and restless sleep. Receiving emotional support from family and more frequent contact with church members were associated with decreased restless sleep. Emotional family support moderated the associations between chronic stress exposure and trouble falling asleep and restless sleep. The positive associations between chronic stress exposure and these two sleep quality measures were attenuated among respondents who received high levels of emotional support from their family.
Conclusions: Together, these findings underscore the detriment of chronic stress exposure to African Americans' sleep quality and suggest that extended family members are effective stress coping resources and play an important role in this population's sleep quality.
Background: Physical activity is a key component in gestational diabetes mellitus management to optimise glycaemic control and reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, inadequate physical activity during pregnancy is common. Underpinned by a woman-centred pregnancy care model, appropriate strategies targeting patients' cultural needs may facilitate physical activity participation. Ethnic Chinese migrants have a four-fold higher risk of gestational diabetes mellitus than the Australian Caucasian host population. To identify potentially effective disease management strategies to improve physical activity participation, understanding and comparing ethnic Chinese migrants' and Caucasian women's views will provide insights into developing an end-user-informed intervention.
Aims: This study aimed to compare perceptions and practices around physical activity participation during pregnancy between 44 ethnic Chinese migrants and 39 Australian-born Caucasian women with gestational diabetes mellitus.
Methods: This mixed-methods study used in-depth, semi-structured audio-recorded interviews, validated pregnancy physical activity questionnaires and pedometers. Qualitative data were thematically analysed and compared between ethnicities. SPSS (SPSS Inc) was used in quantitative data analysis. Data triangulation was made to identify patterns in participant characteristics, physical activity beliefs and participation.
Results: Despite both ethnic groups doing less physical activity than recommended, Chinese participants were less physically active than Caucasian participants. Chinese participants expressed greater safety concerns about physical activity and opted for a more sedentary lifestyle. Data triangulation indicated that non-Australian-born Chinese participants whose husbands were Asian were overcautious about miscarriage risk related to physical activity, which promoted a sedentary lifestyle. Chinese participants suggested individualised, specific physical activity advice on safe physical activity during pregnancy would mitigate their concerns. Caucasian participants reported that digital step measurement technologies motivated their participation in physical activity.
Conclusion: Different strategies are suggested by Chinese and Caucasian participants to improve physical activity participation to manage gestational diabetes mellitus among ethnic Chinese and Caucasian populations, which will be evaluated in future interventions.
Objectives: Studies on ovarian cancer (OC) diagnosis, treatment and survival across disaggregated Asian sub-ethnic groups are sparse. Few studies have also conducted trend analyses of these outcomes within and across Asian groups.
Methods: Using logistic, Cox, and Joinpoint regression analyses of the 2000-2018 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, we examined disparities and trends in OC advanced stage diagnosis, receipt of treatments and the 5-year cause-specific survival across seven Asian sub-ethnic groups.
Results: There were 6491 OC patients across seven Asian sub-ethnic groups (mean [SD] age, 57.29 [13.90] years). There were 1583(24.39%) Filipino, 1183(18.23%) Chinese, and 761(11.72%) Asian Indian or Pakistani (AIP) patients. The majority (52.49%) were diagnosed with OC with at an advanced stage. AIP were more likely to have advanced stage diagnosis than other subgroups (ORs, 95%CIs: 0.77, 0.62-0.96 [Filipino]; 0.76, 0.60-0.95 [Chinese]; 0.71, 0.54-0.94 [Japanese]; 0.74, 0.56-0.98 [Vietnamese] and 0.66, 0.53-0.83 [Other Asians]). The Filipinos were least likely to receive surgery but most likely to undergo chemotherapy. Japanese patients had the worst 5-year OC cause-specific survival (50.29%, 95%CI: 46.20%-54.74%). Based on the aggregated analyses, there was a significantly decreased trend in advanced-stage diagnosis and an increased trend in receipt of chemotherapy. Trends in OC outcomes for several subethnicities differed from those observed in aggregated analyses.
Conclusion: In this cohort study of 6491 patients, OC diagnosis, treatment, survival, and trends differed across Asian American ethnic subgroups. Such differences must be considered in future research and interventions to ensure all Asian American subethnicities equally benefit from the advancements in OC care and control.
Objectives: Research on Black maternal populations often focuses on deficits that can reinforce biases against Black individuals and communities. The research landscape must shift towards a strengths-based approach focused on the protective assets of Black individuals and communities to counteract bias. This study engaged the local Black community using a strengths-based approach to discuss the assets of Black maternal populations and to inform the design of a future clinical trial focused on reducing Black maternal health disparities.
Design: Guided by the Theory of Maternal Adaptive Capacity, we conducted three purposive focus group sessions with Black adult community members. The focus groups were semi-structured to cover specific topics, including the strengths of the local community, strengths specific to pregnant community members, how the strengths of community members can support pregnant individuals, and how the strengths of pregnant community members can facilitate a healthy pregnancy. The focus group interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis.
Results: Three focus group sessions were conducted with sixteen female individuals identifying as Black or African American. Central themes include (1) the power of pregnancy and motherhood in Black women, (2) challenging negative perceptions and media representation of Black mothers, (3) recognizing history and reclaiming cultural traditions surrounding birth, and (4) community as the foundation of Black motherhood.
Conclusion: Black community members identified powerful themes on Black maternal health through a strengths-based lens. These focus groups fostered relationships with the Black community, elucidated possible solutions to improve Black women's health and wellness, and offered direction on our research design and intervention.
Objectives: Acculturative stress is an important factor that affects health for Latinx immigrants in the US, with multiple studies identifying a link between depression and acculturative stress in this population. However, far fewer studies have examined the specific role and relationship of acculturative stress on mental health service use in this population. Through the lens of Yang's 2016 Model of Immigrant Health Service Use, this study aimed to examine the role of acculturative stress in predicting mental health service use in a sample of Latinx immigrants in the Southeast US.
Design: We conducted a secondary data analysis from a longitudinal study of Latinx immigrant health (n = 391).
Results: Our study found that while total acculturative stress was not significantly associated with mental health service use in this sample, parenting stress was a significant predictor of mental health service use in the past six months when controlling for covariates (OR: 1.043, 95% CI [1.009, 1.078]). Additionally, important Predisposing and Need for Healthcare factors were significantly associated with mental health service use, specifically: males were less likely to utilize mental health services than females (OR: 0.401, 95% CI [0.166-0.968]), English language acculturation was positively associated with mental health service use (OR: 1.953, 95% CI [1.130, 3.377]), and depression was positively associated with mental health service use (OR: 1.107, 95% CI [1.027, 1.194]).
Conclusion: These findings support the need for more culturally sensitive mental health services, and the need to develop strategies to engage males and less acculturated individuals in mental health services to promote health equity among Latinx immigrants.