Open AccessLanguage and Culture as Barriers to Healthcare for Chinese Immigrants
Author(s) -
Edwin Leung
Publication year - 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Dissertations/theses
DOI - 10.15760/honors.981
Subject(s) - immigration , language barrier , health care , order (exchange) , medicine , quality (philosophy) , population , cultural diversity , nursing , business , psychology , public relations , political science , environmental health , finance , epistemology , philosophy , law
Immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88 percent of United States population growth through 2065. Currently, immigrants make up for about 13.5 percent of the US population. In addition, 65.5 million Americans speak a language other than English at home. Language and culture are the two most significant barriers faced by immigrants seeking health care. These barriers have a significant impact on immigrants’ ability to receive quality care, make them more vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Many resources exist to help immigrants with various needs including health care. However, more effort is needed to strengthen the resources that are aimed to address and alleviate language and cultural barriers in the health care system. This thesis reviews scholarly literature in order to provide a better understanding of the impact of language and cultural barriers on the health care seeking experiences of older Chinese immigrants, evaluate the efficacy of existing tools and services designed to address these issues, and proposes ways to improve these existing resources in order to build a better experience for all immigrants seeking health care.