Khalid Ayisha, Chowdhury Nashit, Chowdhury Mohammad Zi, Turin Tanvir C
Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
J Migr Health. 2022 Sep 13;6:100131. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2022.100131. eCollection 2022.
Immigrant service provider organizations (SPOs) are often immigrants' first point of contact to Canadian systems, such as job, education, health and social care, and housing. Prior research emphasizes the health literacy potential of websites as information infrastructures that can reduce information poverty and improve health outcomes. Yet, whether health-wellness resources are present on immigrant SPOs' websites in a user-friendly manner remains unexplored.
We identified the presence of health-wellness resources on SPOs' websites and analyzed those contents to understand their typology. We also ascertained the navigability, usability, and credibility of those websites regarding the health-wellness resources.
Among the 1453 SPO websites identified, only 289 (35.9%) had health-wellness information in their web-contents. Of the websites with health-wellness contents, "lifestyle and wellness resources" were present on 86.5% and "healthcare system resources" were present on 80.6% of the websites. Regarding "navigability", zero to two mouse clicks were required to access health-wellness resources on 94.8% of the websites; however, more than one language option was very limited, available on less than a quarter of websites.
As immigrants continue to seek information online, immigrant SPOs' websites hold value in increasing the health literacy and health-wellness of immigrants. This research assessed the current state of immigrant SPOs' websites as information infrastructures and reveals areas for improvement. We recommend SPOs add resources for obtaining healthcare card, accessing primary care, sexual and reproductive, parenting, senior's health, mental wellbeing, and women's health information to their websites. We also recommend websites accommodate ethnic language option to improve navigability for immigrants.
移民服务提供机构（SPO）通常是移民与加拿大体系（如就业、教育、医疗和社会护理以及住房）的首个接触点。先前的研究强调网站作为信息基础设施在健康素养方面的潜力，它可以减少信息匮乏并改善健康状况。然而，移民服务提供机构网站上是否以用户友好的方式提供健康养生资源仍未得到探索。
我们确定了服务提供机构网站上健康养生资源的存在情况，并分析这些内容以了解其类型。我们还确定了这些网站在健康养生资源方面的可导航性、可用性和可信度。
在确定的1453个服务提供机构网站中，只有289个（35.9%）在其网页内容中有健康养生信息。在有健康养生内容的网站中，86.5%的网站有“生活方式与健康资源”，80.6%的网站有“医疗保健系统资源”。关于“可导航性”，94.8%的网站只需零至两次鼠标点击即可访问健康养生资源；然而，不止一种语言选项非常有限，不到四分之一的网站提供。
随着移民继续在网上寻求信息，移民服务提供机构的网站在提高移民的健康素养和健康养生方面具有价值。本研究评估了移民服务提供机构网站作为信息基础设施的现状，并揭示了需要改进的领域。我们建议服务提供机构在其网站上添加获取医疗保健卡、获得初级保健、性健康与生殖健康、育儿、老年人健康、心理健康和妇女健康信息的资源。我们还建议网站提供民族语言选项，以提高对移民的可导航性。
