EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF IRAQI MUSLIM WOMEN AND PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS
Rationale and Background: Research indicates that health disparities persist for minorities in the U.S. Sources of health disparities may stem from differences (linguistic, cultural, religious, gender, education) between health provider and patient. Research to date has not identified direct reasons for health disparities between patient and providers. There is a lack of research addressing the interpersonal relationships between Muslim women and health care providers which could reveal reasons for health disparities.
Methods: Critical ethnography and post-colonial feminism guided semi-structured interviews in order to explore the significance of difference between patients and health providers. The purposefully selected sample of 15 Iraqi Muslim women and 10 primary health care providers from 4 urban clinics supplied the primary data. Supportive methods included field notes, and key informants. The data were inductively coded and categories were formed from repetition of main ideas. Through analysis and interpretation of the data, themes emerged from the categories for each participant group. It was the assumption of this study that differences between Iraqi Muslim women and primary health care providers were embedded in each participant’s social, cultural and political context which informed experiences and perceptions. Personal accounts of health encounter experiences offers rich data about the personal interaction between health providers and patients.
Results: This research revealed that Iraqi Muslim women with refugee backgrounds face many barriers in seeking health care which are both health system and health provider based. Likewise, health providers are limited in their ability to bridge differences and function with knowledge deficits about patients as individuals including their culturally-based perceptions and expectations.
Clinical Implications: The health encounter is limited by time, inadequate interpretive services and expectations which open an avenue for misinterpretation, misdiagnosis and stereotyping. Recommendations are suggested for comprehensive changes to the usual confines of the health encounter and for the means of increasing awareness and education of state agencies, health administration, and nurses as health providers about the barriers faced by Iraqi Muslim women.