Abstract
BackgroundMigration flows from Eastern Europe to Italy have been large and continue to grow. The purpose of this study was to examine the health status of a population of Moldovan migrant women, and their access to health care services in northern Italy, by age group and health literacy level.MethodsWe administered an ad-hoc questionnaire to adult Moldovan women. A bivariate analysis was conducted to test the association between health literacy and age groups with other variables (lifestyles, symptoms and diseases, access to health services). A stepwise logistic regression analysis was run to test the association between access to primary care and health literacy. Moreover, the study compare Moldovan women data with a sample of Italian women of the same age range living in North-Eastern region.ResultsOur sample included 170 Moldovan women (aged 46.5 ± 12.3) in five occupational categories: home care workers (28.2%); cleaners (27.1%); health care workers (5.9%); other occupations (28.8%); and unemployed (10%). Active smokers were twice as prevalent among the women with a low health literacy. Health literacy level also determined access to primary healthcare services. For all age groups, the Moldovan sample reported a higher prevalence of allergies, lumbar disorders and depression than the Italian controls.ConclusionsThe reported prevalence of some diseases was higher among Moldovan migrant women than among Italian resident women. Health literacy was associated with the migrant women’s lifestyle and the use of primary health care services, as previously seen for the autochthonous population.
Highlights
Migration flows from Eastern Europe to Italy have been large and continue to grow
There was a high prevalence of allergies and lumbar disorders at all ages, and a high prevalence of depression clustered in the intermediate age groups
Older age was associated with a higher Body mass index (BMI), and with an increase in the reported prevalence of some diseases, such as hypertension, arthritis/arthrosis, cervical disorders, and diabetes
Summary
Migration flows from Eastern Europe to Italy have been large and continue to grow. The purpose of this study was to examine the health status of a population of Moldovan migrant women, and their access to health care services in northern Italy, by age group and health literacy level. It has been reported that migrant workers in certain living and economic conditions may not seek health care - supposedly due to a limited knowledge of their rights or to cultural or language barriers [8] This seems to be true in the case of work-related diseases or injuries [9], and even applies to migrant women with a good formal education [5, 6]. It has been established internationally that, for people to use health care services appropriately, they need to be able to access and understand health-related information, as captured in the concept of “health literacy” This type of competence depends directly on a given individual’s language, education and culture. It is often described as an individual’s capacity both to process health-related information and actively choose a healthy behavior, and to actively and appropriately interact with health care services [10, 11]
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