Health Concept and Health Promotion Process Among Korean Migrant Women

[Family as a Health-Maintaining Resource for Late Repatriates? A Qualitative Study of Health Attitudes in Old Age]

BACKGROUND

In the context of demographic changes in Germany, it can be observed that the number of older people among the second largest migrant group - the so-called late repatriates - is on the rise. The health and utilisation behaviour of preventive measures by this group differs from that of the German population or people with a different migration background. An essential prerequisite for the design of target group-specific prevention measures is the knowledge of health expectations of the late repatriates.

GOAL OF THE STUDY

The goal of this study was to show the importance of the family and the predominant role models of late repatriates in health attitudes.

METHOD

Guided interviews were conducted with 13 late repatriates in Russian and evaluated using the documentary method.

RESULTS

The family and the care for (grand-)children was a central element of the preservation of health of the respondents. The traditional role models brought from the Soviet Union were partly preserved and partly (regardless the gender) expanded by the care for the (grand-)children.

CONCLUSION

The involvement of (grand-)children has a health-promoting effect on maintaining health in late repatriates and can encourage their use of preventive measures.

Concepts of health in different contexts: a scoping review

The rationale of our study was that the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health from 1947 which includes "… complete physical, mental and social wellbeing…" does not fit the current societal viewpoints anymore. The WHO's definition of health implies that many people with chronic illnesses or disabilities would be considered unhealthy and complete wellbeing would be utopian and unfeasible for them. This is no longer uniformly accepted. Many alternative concepts of health have been discussed in the last decades such as 'positive health', which focusses on someone's capability rather than incapability,. However, the question remains whether a general health concept can guide all healthcare practices. More likely, health concepts need to be specified for professions or settings. The objective of our study was to create a structured overview of published concepts of health from different perspectives by conducting a scoping review using the PRISMA-ScR guideline. A literature search was conducted in Pubmed and Cinahl. Articles eligible for inclusion focussed on the discussion or the conceptualisation of health or health-related concepts in different contexts (such as the perspective of care workers' or patients') published since 2009 (the Dutch Health Council raised the discussion about moving towards a more dynamic perspective on health in that year). Seventy-five articles could be included for thematic analyses. The results showed that most articles described a concept of health consisting of multiple subthemes; no consensus was found on one overall concept of health. This implies that healthcare consumers act based on different health concepts when seeking care than care workers when providing care. Having different understandings of the concepts of health can lead to misunderstandings in practice. In conclusion, from every perspective, and even for every individual, health may mean something different. This finding stresses the importance that care workers' and healthcare consumers' meaning of 'health' has to be clear to all actors involved. Our review supports a more uniform tuning of healthcare between healthcare providers (the organisations), care workers (the professionals) and healthcare consumers (the patients), by creating more awareness of the differences among these actors, which can be a guide in their communication.