Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun;56(6):913-930.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02065-1. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Interventions to increase migrants' care-seeking behaviour for stigmatised conditions: a scoping review

Vanessa Place  1 , Benjamin Nabb  1 , Karima Viksten Assel  1   2 , Sofie Bäärnhielm  1   2 , Christina Dalman  1   3 , Anna-Clara Hollander  4   5
Affiliations

Interventions to increase migrants' care-seeking behaviour for stigmatised conditions: a scoping review

Vanessa Place et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Despite availability of effective treatments, migrants in high-income countries seek care for conditions associated with stigma to a lower extent than the rest of the population. We conducted a scoping review to map the literature on interventions to increase migrants' care-seeking behaviour in high-income countries for stigmatised conditions. Main body of the abstract: We searched 15 electronic databases and journals, hand-searched references and citations, to identify studies on interventions to increase migrants' care-seeking in high-income countries for stigmatised conditions. We applied language restrictions for English and Swedish, and searched the full time period up to 5 July 2019. Our primary outcome of interest was care utilisation.

Results: 5447 records were identified in the literature searches. We identified 16 eligible studies, all from North America, that reported interventions to increase migrants' care-seeking behaviour for hepatitis B (n = 1) and mental health (n = 15). Three approaches were identified: health communication (n = 10), support groups (n = 2), and primary care-based approaches (n = 4). There was a general trend towards community-based interventions tailored to individual migrant groups. Significant gaps were identified in the literature, including studies conducted in Europe and studies including men or children. Furthermore, the choice of study designs introduced significant bias that prevented accurate conclusions on intervention effectiveness.

Conclusion: The available evidence on interventions to increase migrants' in high-income countries care-seeking behaviour for stigmatised conditions is limited in scope and quality. Future research, using reliable study designs, is needed to fill the remaining gaps and to boost the scope and reliability of the evidence.

Keywords: Care-seeking; HIV; Hepatitis; High-income countries; Interventions to increase care-seeking behaviour; Mental health; Migrants; Scoping review; Stigma; TB.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study selection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations. International Migration Report (2017) Highlights [Internet]. UN; 2018. 1–38 p. (Statistical Papers - United Nations (Ser. A), Population and Vital Statistics Report). https://www.un-ilibrary.org/international-law-and-justice/international-.... https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications...
    1. IOM, WHO, UN. International Migration, Health and Human rights. International Migration, Health and Human rights. 2013.
    1. Sweileh WM, Wickramage K, Pottie K, Hui C, Roberts B, Sawalha AF, et al. Bibliometric analysis of global migration health research in peer-reviewed literature (2000–2016) BMC Public Health. 2018;18(1):1–18. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4524-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abubakar I, Aldridge RW, Devakumar D, Orcutt M, Burns R, Barreto ML, et al. The UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: the health of a world on the move. Lancet [Internet]. 2018 Dec 15;392(10164):2606–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32114-7 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hossin MZ. International migration and health: it is time to go beyond conventional theoretical frameworks. BMJ Glob Heal. 2020;5(2):e001938. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001938. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources