RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To identify specific factors that potentially influence the willingness of Korean immigrant women to seek preventive health care. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional correlational pilot study examining health-seeking behaviors of Korean immigrant women. SETTING: Participants were recruited from multiple sites, including Korean churches, small businesses, e-mail, and social media. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 87 Korean immigrant women (i.e., both parents Korean), 18 years or older, able to read and understand English and/or Korean, and currently living in the United States. INTERVENTION/MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected using a 62-item bilingual questionnaire, composed of researcher-developed questions and the Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale. Pearson's correlations were performed to analyze bivariate relationships between willingness to seek care and outcome variables. RESULTS: Korean immigrant women were significantly more willing to seek preventive health care when they were prompted by outside sources of information and exhibited greater self-efficacy. Significant positive correlations were found between participant's age, years lived in the United States, cues to action, and self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: Promoting preventive health information at every opportunity and fostering self-efficacy in culturally sensitive ways are important to increase health care use among Korean immigrant women. Developing cultural-based interventions to improve the health-seeking behaviors of Korean immigrant women was shown to be imperative.
