This learning note adopts an intersectional social determinants of health framework to examine immigrant women’s health in Canada. Intersectionality highlights how overlapping systems of inequality, such as gender, race, socio-economic position, and immigration status, interact to produce distinct health outcomes. Immi...
Key populations: immigrant women from the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa)
Open access: No
Location: Edmonton, AB
Key findings:
Themes included:
1) Limited knowledge about breast health, cancer risk, and screening services in Canada.
2) Barriers to maintaining breast health and to screening included: l...
Integration timeline: not defined
Open access: Yes
Location: Calgary, AB
Community organizations: Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA)
Key populations: refugee mothers in the Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program in Calgary
Key findings:
1) Mothers emphasiz...
Integration timeline: not defined
Key findings:
1) Participants had differing past experiences in Canada and before their arrival that influenced how they used information in their vaccination decisions.
2) Increased likelihood of vaccine uptake and trust in Canadian healthcare was fostered through clear vaccination...
Community organizations: New Canadian Health Centre (NCHC)
Future research / gaps identified:
Continue exploring the healthcare experiences of Afghan refugee women in order to build evidence-based interventions and policies.
Open access: Yes
Location: Edmonton, AB
Key populations: Afghan refugee women living in...
Key findings:
1) The overarching theme of the interviews was “The necessity of finding ways to survive in the face of intersecting challenges.”
2) The subtheme “struggles in Canada” discussed structural barriers to economic success, compounded discrimination across intersectional identities, and the burden of the doubl...
Future research / gaps identified:
Complete a longitudinal study (i.e. follow participants over time) to support this data.
Integration timeline: not defined
Key findings:
1) The majority of participants had more knowledge of postnatal mental health as compared to prenatal mental health.
2) Only 25.4% accurately r...
Community organizations: n/a
Future research / gaps identified:
Work with communities to co-identify solutions to the barriers found in this study.
Integration timeline: newcomers not defined
Key findings
Barriers to primary health care access included:
Long wait times, unavailability of practitioners, and long...
Community organizations: n/a
Key findings:
Immigrant and racialized women are over-represented among health care aids in long term care.
COVID-19 has exacerbated preexisting economic and social exclusion of immigrant health care aides employed in long term care.
Addressing intersectional inequalities experien...
Community organizations: n/a
Key findings:
1) Women do not receive enough care for a miscarriage, and immigrant women are particularly vulnerable as they may have a lack of social and familial support in Canada.
2) Cost, stigma, lack of support, language and other accessibility factors impact immigrant women’s abilit...