Public Health Center Service Experiences and Needs among Immigrant Women in South Korea

Purpose@#To support implementation of comprehensive, person-centered healthcare, this study aimed to explore immigrant women's public health center (PHC) service experiences and needs while considering Photovoice's feasibility for this purpose. @*Methods@#This qualitative study included 15 marriage-based immigrant women.Participants were recruited from churches and multicultural family support centers using purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through four focus group interviews and were subjected to inductive content analysis. @*Results@#Five categories of experiences were identified: language barriers, hectic environment, affordable and practical primary healthcare, feeling ignored and discriminated against, and feeling frustrated. In addition, five categories of needs were identified: language assistance services, ease of access, healthcare across the lifespan, expansion of affordable healthcare, and being accepted as they are. This study provides preliminary evidence that the Photovoice approach can facilitate the interview process in a qualitative inquiry involving participants with limited ability to express their perspectives in the researchers' language. @*Conclusion@#Study findings highlight the need to implement institutional policy and procedural changes within PHCs and to provide culturally competent, personcentered care for South Korea's marriage-based immigrant women and other ethnic minority populations. The findings also provide evidence-based direction for PHC service planning.

Influencing Factors on Health-related Quality of Life among Japanese Middle-aged Marriage-based Immigrant Women in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose@#With the first generation of marriage-based immigrant women in East Asia now reaching their middle or old age, the need to focus investigations on their health-related quality of life has arisen. This study aimed to examine the extent to which physical and mental health, and psychosocial variables can predict health-related quality of life among Japanese middle-aged immigrant women. @*Methods@#This study has a descriptive cross-sectional design. A convenience sample of 197 Japanese middle-aged marriage-based immigrant women from two regions of South Korea were recruited between December 2017 and March 2018. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires on health-related quality of life, menopausal symptoms, depression, perceived health status, disease morbidity, social support, and acculturation. The data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. @*Results@#Depression was the strongest predictor of health-related quality of life, followed by perceived health status, social support, and household income. Menopausal symptoms, presence of disease, and acculturation appeared to have no additional impact on participant’s health-related quality of life. @*Conclusion@#In times of rapid growth of global migration and the aging of immigrants in new destination countries, nursing interventions and public health policies for aging marriage-based immigrant women should be prioritized to improve their mental health by facilitating social support and disease management. In addition, social and employment policies that can help immigrant women transition to a healthy midlife are needed.