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Brener L, Vu HMK, Horwitz R, Cama E, Martin K, Rance J, Okeke S, Bryant J. 'People Like Us Would Have No Clue If the Information Is Online': Exploring Understanding and Sources of Hepatitis B Information Among Vietnamese Australians. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2024:10.1007/s40615-024-02055-4. [PMID: 38918320 DOI: 10.1007/s40615-024-02055-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2024] [Revised: 06/04/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
Socio-cultural and behavioural factors are often not adequately considered in designing health promotion programs for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia. Given that people of Vietnamese background are disproportionately impacted by hepatitis B, the aim of this research was to better understand these factors to inform hepatitis B health promotion messages for the Vietnamese community. Twenty participants (four living with hepatitis B) were interviewed by a Vietnamese-speaking researcher. The interview sessions explored beliefs about health, the body and liver; knowledge and attitudes about hepatitis B vaccines, testing, clinical management and stigma; and sources of health information and value given to information on social media. Participants had a range of understandings of health and hepatitis B which informed their responses to health education and intervention. Participants appeared to have limited knowledge and misconceptions about transmission, prevention, treatment, and management of hepatitis B. Stigma surrounding hepatitis B was apparent, with over half the participants reporting that they distanced themselves from people living with hepatitis B. Participants preferred online information resources for younger people and traditional media in the Vietnamese language for older people. By understanding what Vietnamese people know about hepatitis B and how they access health information, these findings can be used to inform health promotion campaigns using print, media, and radio to ensure wide reach. Knowledge of community specific information is key to reducing the burden of hepatitis B among culturally and linguistically diverse communities and ensuring they are able to access healthcare services for testing, monitoring, and care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loren Brener
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
| | | | - Robyn Horwitz
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Elena Cama
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Kacey Martin
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jake Rance
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Sylvester Okeke
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Joanne Bryant
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Bryant J, Smith AKJ, Persson A, Valentine K, Drysdale K, Wallace J, Hamilton M, Newman CE. Logics of control and self-management in narratives of people living with HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B. CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY 2023; 25:1214-1229. [PMID: 36476229 DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2022.2149858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
In Australia, the response to HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B has largely been through the constructed category of 'blood borne viruses' which treats these viruses as an interconnected set of conditions with respect to their mode of transmission. In this paper, we explore how people understand their viral infection, and compare the logics underpinning these different understandings. In-depth interviews were conducted with 61 participants who were either living with a blood borne virus or were the family members of people living with them. Our analysis reveals that the viral infection was often described as 'just a condition that needs to be managed', albeit in potentially exhausting ways. This understanding hinged upon a biomedical logic in which viral invasion was seen as causing illness and in turn necessitating biomedical intervention. In contrast, some participants with hepatitis B presented their infection as a condition unintelligible through Western biomedical logics, defined instead by symptomology - in terms of 'liver disease', and/or 'liver inflammation'. This focus on symptomology calls into question the soundness of prevention and management responses to hepatitis B based in biomedical logics and reveals the extent to which living with a virus involves multiple, sometimes incompatible, cultural logics. The different logics underpinning HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B reveal shortcomings of framing these viruses together as a coherent single construct.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanne Bryant
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Asha Persson
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Kerryn Drysdale
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Myra Hamilton
- University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Christy E Newman
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Lemoh C, Xiao Y, Tran L, Yussf N, Moro P, Dutertre S, Wallace J. An Intersectional Approach to Hepatitis B. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:4879. [PMID: 36981797 PMCID: PMC10049575 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20064879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Hepatitis B is a chronic condition, primarily associated with hepatitis B viral infection in early life. The failure of prevention and appropriate management can lead to subsequent liver cirrhosis and cancer. Hepatitis B most commonly affects people born in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and their global diasporas. The physical, psychological, and social impacts of hepatitis B are strongly influenced by sex and gender. Inequities in access to timely, sensitive diagnosis and effective management arise from interactions between structural inequalities related to race, ethnicity, Indigenous/settler status, class, and geography. The biomedical response to hepatitis B has led to advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, but many affected communities have explanatory health belief models that differ from that of biomedicine. We argue that an intersectional approach, led by affected people and communities, can integrate biomedicine with the lived experience and social context that give purpose to and shape all personal, communal, clinical, and public health responses to hepatitis B. This approach has the potential to enable a consciously equitable, effective response to the biopsychosocial complexities of hepatitis B, improve the health and wellbeing of people living with hepatitis B, and reduce hepatitis B-associated mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Lemoh
- Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Yinzong Xiao
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Lien Tran
- Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Nafisa Yussf
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Piergiorgio Moro
- Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia
| | - Sophie Dutertre
- Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia
| | - Jack Wallace
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
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de-Graft Aikins A, Sanuade O, Baatiema L, Adjaye-Gbewonyo K, Addo J, Agyemang C. How chronic conditions are understood, experienced and managed within African communities in Europe, North America and Australia: A synthesis of qualitative studies. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0277325. [PMID: 36791113 PMCID: PMC9931108 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
This review focuses on the lived experiences of chronic conditions among African communities in the Global North, focusing on established immigrant communities as well as recent immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking communities. We conducted a systematic and narrative synthesis of qualitative studies published from inception to 2022, following a search from nine databases-MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Social Science Citation Index, Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, SCOPUS and AMED. 39 articles reporting 32 qualitative studies were included in the synthesis. The studies were conducted in 10 countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States) and focused on 748 participants from 27 African countries living with eight conditions: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, sickle cell disease, chronic hepatitis, chronic pain, musculoskeletal orders and mental health conditions. The majority of participants believed chronic conditions to be lifelong, requiring complex interventions. Chronic illness impacted several domains of everyday life-physical, sexual, psycho-emotional, social, and economic. Participants managed their illness using biomedical management, traditional medical treatment and faith-based coping, in isolation or combination. In a number of studies, participants took 'therapeutic journeys'-which involved navigating illness action at home and abroad, with the support of transnational therapy networks. Multi-level barriers to healthcare were reported across the majority of studies: these included individual (changing food habits), social (stigma) and structural (healthcare disparities). We outline methodological and interpretive limitations, such as limited engagement with multi-ethnic and intergenerational differences. However, the studies provide an important insights on a much-ignored area that intersects healthcare for African communities in the Global North and medical pluralism on the continent; they also raise important conceptual, methodological and policy challenges for national health programmes on healthcare disparities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ama de-Graft Aikins
- Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Olutobi Sanuade
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Leonard Baatiema
- Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - Kafui Adjaye-Gbewonyo
- Faculty of Education, Health and Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
| | - Juliet Addo
- Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Charles Agyemang
- Department of Public Health, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Ahenkorah AY, Dzansi G, Adjei CA. Cognitive and emotional illness representation of people with chronic hepatitis B in Ghana: A qualitative inquiry. Int J STD AIDS 2022; 33:890-895. [DOI: 10.1177/09564624221107791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Hepatitis B remains a public health concern in Ghana, with an estimated prevalence of 8.4% in adults and 14.3% in adolescents. This study explored the cognitive and emotional illness representations of persons with chronic hepatitis B who sought care at a tertiary hospital’s liver clinic in Ghana. A qualitative exploratory descriptive design was adopted, and 15 participants were purposefully chosen for in-person interviews. The data was analyzed using the content analysis procedure. The findings revealed that participants’ cognitive representations of hepatitis B infection varied. Some believed they got the infection through unsafe sexual practices, while others thought it was from their mother or spiritual sources. Participants’ predominant emotional representations included shock, confusion, and fear. Education about the causes and management of hepatitis B should be addressed as part of patient care.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gladys Dzansi
- Department of Adult Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
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Hou L, Zhang Y, Tang S, Tang X. The loss and return of self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of coping and recovery from chronic hepatitis B in China. Nurs Health Sci 2022; 24:625-633. [PMID: 35670524 DOI: 10.1111/nhs.12963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Revised: 05/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a prevalent disease with various negative consequences. The lived experience of coping and recovery of a patient with Chronic hepatitis B was explored in this study. A semistructured interview was conducted with one participant who had been recovered from Chronic hepatitis B for 10 years. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five superordinate themes emerged, including lingering in the shadow of death anxiety, diminished functioning of the self, adopting a highly disciplined lifestyle, receiving social support, and the return of the self with scars. The findings revealed that the disease is deeply associated with moral standing, which means the diagnosis of Chronic hepatitis B might imply a loss of moral face for Chinese people living with the condition. Our findings point to the need for increasing knowledge about chronic hepatitis B, decoupling the disease from a moral standpoint, and providing a supportive environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liqi Hou
- Department of Sociology, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yansong Zhang
- School of Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.,Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Suqin Tang
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Xinfeng Tang
- Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
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Le Gautier R, Wallace J, Richmond JA, Pitts M. The personal and social impact of chronic hepatitis B: A qualitative study of Vietnamese and Chinese participants in Australia. HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY 2021; 29:1420-1428. [PMID: 33064908 DOI: 10.1111/hsc.13197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Revised: 08/09/2020] [Accepted: 09/17/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
This study explores the lived experiences of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) among Vietnamese and Chinese-born people living in Melbourne, Australia. The aims of this study were to investigate the personal and social implications of CHB, and the extent to which these implications, including experiences of stigma and marginalisation, affect individuals' overall quality of life. This study is based on individual semi-structured interviews with 37 Vietnamese and Chinese people with CHB in Australia (n = 22 and n = 15 respectively). The interviews were conducted between February 2015 and November 2016. Electronically recorded interviews of up to 1.5 hr were conducted, translated where necessary and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using NVivo, with coding themes guided by the principles of thematic analysis. Fundamental to most participants' accounts was the experience of living in constant fear of stigma and marginalisation, which participants unanimously attributed to prevailing misconceptions about hepatitis B-related transmission routes and disease outcomes. The accompanying experiences of social isolation-whether imposed upon themselves or by others-brought on additional feelings of shame and emotional pain, which had a profound impact on participants' overall quality of life. By exploring participants' lived experiences of hepatitis B, it became clear that concerns about the clinical implications related to hepatitis B as a biomedical infection make up only a small part of their experiences. Of particular significance were personal and social concerns around transmission, disclosure as well as the impact of stigma and marginalisation on participants and their families. Adopting a comprehensive multi-pronged response to tackle the multitude of complexities surrounding this infection among key affected communities will be more effective than just recognising the physical experience of the infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roslyn Le Gautier
- Palliative Nexus, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia
| | - Jack Wallace
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne VIC, Australia
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
| | - Jacqueline A Richmond
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne VIC, Australia
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
| | - Marian Pitts
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
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