Optimizing health promotion among ethnocultural minority older adults (EMOA)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the salient barriers in the uptake and effective utilization of health promotion interventions among ethnocultural minority older adults (EMOA).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper opted for a literature review of 25 sources (peer-reviewed articles as well as documents from the grey literature). The search was primarily conducted in a database developed during a scoping review on the health and health care access and utilization of EMOA. Emphasis was placed on older ethnocultural minorities in Canada; however examples from the UK (which has a comparable health care system) and the USA and Australia (which have large, ethnically diverse populations) were also selected. The Candidacy framework was used as an analytical lens in the review.

Findings

Findings indicate that health promotion needs to be understood as comprehensive care, involving not only the provision of health care services, but also knowledge dissemination and the facilitation of access to these services. Limited health literacy, low levels of self-efficacy and autonomy, and diverse life course experiences, particularly in the case of immigrant older adults, give rise to issues around the identification of need and system navigation. Cultural beliefs on health and illness, particularly around diet and exercise, and a lack of trust in formal systems of health care, are barriers to the uptake of interventions. Similarly, service permeability is low when cultural competency is lacking.

Practical implications

The recommendations include the need for collaborative engagement with stakeholders, including family, peers, community partners and health practitioners, and the development of concise, culturally, and linguistically appropriate tools of health promotion that are targeted toward the intersecting needs of individuals in this diverse population of older adults.

Originality/value

Given the increasingly diverse nature of the older adult population in Canada over the past four decades, this paper makes an important contribution toward understanding the social, cultural, structural, biographical, and geographical factors that may optimize the effective dissemination and uptake of health promotion interventions among EMOA.

Citation

Khan, M.M. and Kobayashi, K. (2015), "Optimizing health promotion among ethnocultural minority older adults (EMOA)", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 268-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-12-2014-0047