Health care choices of immigrants in Calgary, Canada

Many African immigrants moving to Canada tend to experience deterioration of health with time in their host country due to the influence of multiple factors on their health care decisions. The purpose of this study was to understand the problems and decision dynamics relevant to Ghanaian adult immigrants’ health care choices with the first five to ten years of arrival in Calgary, Alberta. This research used a qualitative naturalistic approach with ten Ghanaian adult immigrants. Thematic analysis revealed that participants’ healthcare choices were influenced by their pre-and post-migration experiences, which informed their pathways to care. Participants provided insights about tensions among themselves and with health providers in making healthcare choices as they settled in a new environment. Further, there is a need to provide health education programs and a strong support system to facilitate better health choices and encourage health care service use among recent newcomers.

The purpose of this study was to fully understand the problems and decision dynamics relevant to Ghanaian adult immigrants’ health care choices within the first 5 to 10 years of arrival. This research used qualitative inquiry approach to gather data from participants. A total of ten (10) participants were individually interviewed with open-ended, in-depth questions guided by social constructivist theory.