Brotto Lori A, Chou Annie Y, Singh Tara, Woo Jane S T
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC.
Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC.
J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2008 Mar;30(3):229-238. doi: 10.1016/S1701-2163(16)32759-1.
Lower rates of cervical cancer screening in Indian women have been consistently reported, and this has been attributed to cultural barriers. In Canada, the fastest-growing and largest immigrant groups are South Asian and East Asian. Since traditional values are largely retained in Indo-Canadian immigrants and their children, identifying reproductive health behaviours among these ethnic minority groups is important. Our goal was to compare reproductive health knowledge and behaviours of Indian women living in India and in Canada, East Asian women in Canada, and Euro-Canadian women. We also explored the level of acculturation in the two immigrant groups in order to understand the extent to which affiliation with Western culture may improve reproductive health knowledge.
We recruited 663 women of reproductive age from India and from a Canadian university for assessment. These women completed the Health Beliefs Questionnaire, which measures reproductive health behaviours and knowledge, and the Vancouver Index of Acculturation, which measures the level of mainstream and heritage acculturation.
Euro-Canadian women were most likely to have ever had a Papanicolaou (Pap) test and to perform breast self-examination (BSE). There was no difference between the two Indian groups in the proportion who had ever had a Pap test, but Indo-Canadian women were more likely to have performed BSE. All women showed knowledge of reproductive health, but the three Canadian groups consistently had more accurate knowledge than the Indian group. Among the two immigrant groups, the level of acculturation was associated with reproductive health knowledge.
Canadian women show reproductive health behaviours and knowledge that is superior to Indian women. Moving to a western culture did not influence Indian women's Pap testing behaviour; however, the fact that the reproductive health knowledge of Indian women who moved to Canada was better than that of women in India suggests that there may be a knowledge-behaviour desynchrony in this group of women. Efforts targeted at ethnic minority groups that aim to improve reproductive health knowledge and behaviours are greatly needed.
一直有报告称印度女性宫颈癌筛查率较低，这被归因于文化障碍。在加拿大，增长最快且规模最大的移民群体是南亚和东亚群体。由于印度裔加拿大移民及其子女很大程度上保留了传统价值观，识别这些少数族裔群体的生殖健康行为很重要。我们的目标是比较生活在印度和加拿大的印度女性、加拿大的东亚女性以及欧裔加拿大女性的生殖健康知识和行为。我们还探讨了这两个移民群体的文化适应程度，以了解与西方文化的联系在多大程度上可能改善生殖健康知识。
我们从印度和一所加拿大大学招募了663名育龄女性进行评估。这些女性完成了测量生殖健康行为和知识的健康信念问卷，以及测量主流文化和传统文化适应程度的温哥华文化适应指数。
欧裔加拿大女性最有可能接受过巴氏试验和进行乳房自我检查（BSE）。两个印度群体中接受过巴氏试验的比例没有差异，但印度裔加拿大女性更有可能进行过乳房自我检查。所有女性都表现出了生殖健康知识，但三个加拿大群体的知识始终比印度群体更准确。在两个移民群体中，文化适应程度与生殖健康知识相关。
加拿大女性表现出优于印度女性的生殖健康行为和知识。迁移到西方文化并没有影响印度女性的巴氏试验行为；然而，移居加拿大的印度女性的生殖健康知识比印度女性更好这一事实表明，这组女性可能存在知识与行为不同步的情况。非常需要针对少数族裔群体开展旨在改善生殖健康知识和行为的工作。
