Difficulties accessing health care services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: examining the intersectionality between immigrant status and visible minority status

International Journal for Equity in Health

Yujiro Sano¹  Josephine Etowa²  Bishwajit Ghose²  Ikenna Mbagwu³  Charles Dabone³  Ilene Hyman⁴  Hindia Mohamoud⁵  Muna Osman⁵ 

[1] Department of Sociology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada;Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Canadians of African Descent Health Organization, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Ottawa Local Immigrant Partnership, Ottawa, ON, Canada;

关键词: COVID-19;    Immigrants;    Visible minorities;    Health care;    Canada;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-021-01593-1

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDifficulties accessing health care services can result in delaying in seeking and obtaining treatment. Although these difficulties are disproportionately experienced among vulnerable groups, we know very little about how the intersectionality of realities experienced by immigrants and visible minorities can impact their access to health care services since the pandemic.MethodsUsing Statistics Canada’s Crowdsourcing Data: Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians—Experiences of Discrimination, we combine two variables (i.e., immigrant status and visible minority status) to create a new variable called visible minority immigrant status. This multiplicative approach is commonly used in intersectionality research, which allows us to explore disadvantages experienced by minorities with multiplicative identities.ResultsMain results show that, compared to white native-born, visible minority immigrants are less likely to report difficulties accessing non-emergency surgical care (OR = 0.55, p < 0.001), non-emergency diagnostic test (OR = 0.74, p < 0.01), dental care (OR = 0.71, p < 0.001), mental health care (OR = 0.77, p < 0.05), and making an appointment for rehabilitative care (OR = 0.56, p < 0.001) but more likely to report difficulties accessing emergency services/urgent care (OR = 1.46, p < 0.05).ConclusionWe conclude that there is a dynamic interplay of factors operating at multiple levels to shape the impact of COVID-19 related needs to be addressed through changes in social policies, which can tackle unique struggles faced by visible minority immigrants.

【 授权许可】

CC BY