Cristancho Sergio, Garces D Marcela, Peters Karen E, Mueller Benjamin C
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, Rockford, Illinois, USA.
Qual Health Res. 2008 May;18(5):633-46. doi: 10.1177/1049732308316669.
Hispanic immigrants are increasingly residing in rural communities, including in the midwestern United States. Limitations in the ability of rural Hispanics to access and utilize health care contribute to patterns of poor health and health disparity. A conceptual model of "vulnerability" guides this community-based participatory assessment project designed to explore rural Hispanics' perceived barriers to accessing and utilizing health care. Findings from a series of 19 focus groups with 181 participants from three communities in the upper Midwest identified perceived barriers at the individual and health care system levels. The most commonly perceived barriers were the lack of and limitations in health insurance coverage, high costs of health care services, communication issues involving patients and providers, legal status/discrimination, and transportation concerns. Findings imply that these barriers could be addressed using multiple educational and health service delivery policy-related strategies that consider the vulnerable nature of this growing population.
西班牙裔移民越来越多地居住在农村社区，包括美国中西部地区。农村西班牙裔人群在获得和利用医疗保健方面的能力限制导致了健康状况不佳和健康差距的模式。一个“脆弱性”概念模型指导了这个基于社区的参与性评估项目，该项目旨在探索农村西班牙裔人群在获得和利用医疗保健方面所感知到的障碍。来自美国中西部上游三个社区的181名参与者参加了19个焦点小组，研究结果确定了个人层面和医疗保健系统层面所感知到的障碍。最常被感知到的障碍是医疗保险覆盖不足和受限、医疗保健服务成本高昂、患者与医疗服务提供者之间的沟通问题、法律地位/歧视以及交通问题。研究结果表明，可以通过多种与教育和医疗服务提供政策相关的策略来解决这些障碍，这些策略要考虑到这一不断增长的人群的脆弱性。
