Abstract
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.
Highlights
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care system resources are disproportionately demanded by COVID-19 patients in Canada, often creating an environment where it is difficult to meet the health care needs of non-COVID-19 patients [1]
It is possible that the intersectionality of realities experienced by immigrants and visible minorities can impact their access to health care services since the pandemic
We find the largest visible minority immigrant group is non-visible native-born (71%), followed by visible minority immigrants (14%), visible minority native-born (8%), and non-visible immigrants (7%)
Summary
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care system resources are disproportionately demanded by COVID-19 patients in Canada, often creating an environment where it is difficult to meet the health care needs of non-COVID-19 patients [1]. Using the 2013 Canadian Community Health Survey, Clarke [2] reveals that about 30% of Canadians with health care needs reported difficulties accessing health care services such as ‘waiting too long for an appointment’ and ‘difficulty getting an appointment’ This finding is concerning because Canadians with these experiences may delay seeking and obtaining treatment, underuse primary health care services, and be exposed to a greater risk for the complications of delayed diagnoses [3]. Immigrants report higher rates of difficulties accessing infant health care than the nativeborn [7] These findings are worrying, in the context of the ‘healthy immigrant effect’, whereby immigrants are healthier than the native-born at the time of their arrival in Canada; their health advantage often disappears within 10 years [8]. 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
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