Health-seeking behaviours of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Europe: a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2020-0168 |
| Published date | 05 May 2021 |
| Date | 05 May 2021 |
| Pages | 18-41 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Hamed Ahmadinia,Kristina Eriksson-Backa,Shahrokh Nikou |
Health-seeking behaviours of
immigrants, asylum seekers and
refugees in Europe: a systematic
review of peer-reviewed articles
Hamed Ahmadinia and Kristina Eriksson-Backa
Information Studies,
Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, and
Shahrokh Nikou
Information Studies,
Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland and
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –Immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees living in Europe face a number of challenges in accessing
or using health information and healthcare services available in their host countries. To resolve these issues
and deliver the necessary services, providers must take a comprehensive approach to better understand the
types of health information and healthcare services that these individuals need, seek and use. Therefore, the
purpose of this paper is to develop that comprehensive approach.
Design/methodology/approach–In this paper, a systematicliterature reviewof peer-reviewed publications
was performed, with 3.013 articles collected from various databases. A total of 57 qualifying paperson studies
conducted in Europe were included in the review after applying the predefined inclusion and exclusion
requirements, screening processes and eliminating duplicates. The information seeking and communication
model (ISCM) was used in the analysis.
Findings –The findings revealed that while many health information and healthcare services are accessible in
Europe for immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, many of these individuals are unaware of their existence
or how to access them. While our findings do not specify what health-related information these groups need,
use or seek, they do suggest the importance and value of providing mental health, sexual health and HIV, as
well as pregnancy and childbirth information and services. Furthermore, according to our results, health
information services should be fact-based, easy to understand and raise awareness about healthcare structure
and services available in Europe for this vulnerable population.
Practical implications –This study has a range of practical implications, including(1) highlighting the need
for mental health and behavioural health services and (2) stressing the value of addressing cultural context and
religious values while investigating (health) information seeking of people with foreign background.
Originality/value –This is one of the first studies to systematically review and examine the behaviour of
immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in relation to health information and healthcare services in the
European context.
Keywords Asylum seekers, Europe, Healthcare services, Health-seeking behaviour, Health information,
Immigrants, Refugees, Systematic review
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Europe has historically faced several internal migrations and also migrations from other
continents.There has been a significant increasein the number of people migrating to Europe
in recent years. For example, the number of asylum seekers in Europe grew from 200,000 in
2008 to 1,400,000in 2015 (Eurostat, 2020)and this figure is continuouslyrising. This has led to
JD
78,7
18
© Hamed Ahmadinia, Kristina Eriksson-Backa and Shahrokh Nikou. Published by Emerald Publishing
Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone
may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and
non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Received 7 October 2020
Revised 30 March 2021
Accepted 1 April 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 7, 2022
pp. 18-41
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-10-2020-0168
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
remarkable changes in the cultural,social, political, economic andhealthcare structures of the
Europeancountries that areopen to migration (Sansuset al.,2020, p. 59). Peoplemove to Europe
for differentreasons such as immigration, familyties, work, in search of refuge, orseeking for
asylum due to political situations in their countries of origin(Van Mol and De Valk, 2016).
The provision of healthcare services to these individuals living in Europe is one of the
most highly investigated problems. The importance of studying this demographic, especially
their seeking behaviour for health information and healthcare services, is increasing as the
number of residents with a foreign background in Europe continues to rise. Understanding
what sort of health information and healthcare services this group of people needs, as well as
how they pursue those information and services, is the first step towards addressing the
challenges they may face.
In this study, we looked for scientific research on health information-seeking behaviour
(HISB) and health-seeking behaviour. According to Lalazaryan and Zare-Farashbandi (2014),
HISB refersto a range of possible situations,from an accidental exposureto health information,
to the need for such information, as well as finding, selecting, using and even ignoring
information. The HISB has been extensively researched among immigrants in the USA (e.g.
Chenet al.,2010;Galeshi et al.,2018;Lee, 2018;Shin and Maupome,2017;Yoon and Huang,2017;
Woodall et al.,2009). However, we found very few studies in Europe that focused on these
groups.As a result, it was considerednecessary and timelyto concentrate on thisdemographic,
extend the spectrum from health information-seeking behaviour to a broader viewpoint and
examine the population’s health-seeking behaviour. In this approach, we hope to look at
research from the perspectives of both health-seeking behaviour and health communication.
The existingstudies that have focused on immigrants,asylum seekers and refugeesin Europe
have used common categories regarding the population’s health-seeking behaviours. These
studies have focused on topics such as healthcare needs, healthcare seeking, selection of
healthcare sources, healthcare assessment and use, evaluation of health-seeking outcomes,
health-seeking strategies and future healthcare seeking intentions; all from the patients’
perspectives (Biswas et al., 2011;Gondek and Kirkbride, 2018;Onyigbuo et al., 2018).
In light of these categories, this research employs Robson and Robinson’s (2015)
information seeking and communication model to cover all specific aspects of the health-
seeking process from the perspectives of both users and healthcare providers. In this paper,
“users”refers to immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees residing in Europe, while
“healthcare providers”refers to, e.g. healthcare professionals and medical staff. Moreover, in
the European context, this study examines the experiences of healthcare professionals in
terms of health information needs, information sharing with patients, evaluation and
utilisation of health information and healthcare services by these individuals (Degni et al.,
2012;Delilovic et al., 2018;Koehn, 2006;Misra et al., 2006b;Sundvall et al., 2018). By using the
information seeking and communication model as a categorisation method, we hope to gain a
holistic view of the phenomenon. We used this model to conduct a literature review of
healthcare providers’perspectives on health communication needs, communication methods
and communication barriers between healthcare professionals and their patients. To the best
of our knowledge, there is a dearth of studies on the health information-seeking behaviours of
immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Europe. Of the handful existing studies, few
have been conducted on the behavioural aspects of health information-seeking (Devillanova,
2008;Ekblad et al., 2012;Garnweidner et al., 2013;Lecerof et al., 2011). Furthermore, a
comprehensive analysis of the literature on the health information and healthcare service
needs of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as the type of information sought
and used by them, and how they interpret the information received, is missing. As a result,
this review paper seeks to fill this void by presenting new perspectives and highlighting
areas that need more study. We hope to have answers to the following research questions in
particular.
Health
information
and healthcare
services
19
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