Abstract
BackgroundIncreasing immigration in the world today leads to more intercultural interactions. This is a particularly crucial fact in doctor-patient relationships, which often become more complex and suboptimal within an intercultural context. Since acculturation is a particularly important factor in this process, and the doctor-patient relationship is a key component in patient health outcomes, this study investigates the interrelation of individual immigrant acculturation orientations with the quality of the doctor-immigrant patient relationship, the patients’ perceived quality of care, and how this relates to immigrant health behaviours and quality of life of the patients.Methods171 immigrant patients of various backgrounds participated in a paper and pencil questionnaire to assess the role of acculturation orientations (AO) on patients’ perceived expectations of their doctor, perceived quality of care (PQOC), health behaviours and quality of life. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, regression and correlation procedures with SPSS statistical software.ResultsSignificant correlations were found between all AOs and measures of the participant feeling connected to the host or home culture, thereby verifying the measure of AO. All four AOs were significantly interrelated directly with the patient’s perception of what the doctor expects of him/her, and the patients’ quality of life. Patients’ perceived expectations of their doctors were significantly related to the patients’ PQOC, and PQOC was associated with improved health behaviours (adherence to doctor recommendations, physical activity maintenance self-efficacy).ConclusionsAO may be an important factor in the doctor-immigrant patient relationship, via a complex process involving the patients’ perceptions of doctors’ expectations and perceived quality of care. This has important implications, since such an understanding can be used to create interventions for both doctors and immigrant patients to learn about their own AO, how it can relate to the quality of their relationship, and ultimately, the quality of care, health and quality of life of the patient.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2695-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Increasing immigration in the world today leads to more intercultural interactions
Acculturation orientation Significant positive and negative correlations were found between all acculturation orientation (AO) and measures of the participant feeling connected to the host or home culture (Table 2), thereby verifying the AO measures
AO accounted for a significant amount of the variance for both the perception that the doctor expects the patient to become part of the Canadian culture (F(3, 148) = 4.567, p < .01, partial η2 = .085), and the perception that the doctor accepts if the patient wants to keep his/her home culture (F(3, 149) = 4.081, p < .01, partial η2 = .076) when controlling for the three covariates
Summary
Increasing immigration in the world today leads to more intercultural interactions. This is a crucial fact in doctor-patient relationships, which often become more complex and suboptimal within an intercultural context. Our various relationships with other people/other groups of people play a substantial role in influencing our behaviours and experiences [1, 2] These relationships are not limited to immediate family, friends, or even people of the same cultural background. As a consequence of this increasing globalization, our repertoire of relationships grows in scope, including people from a wide variety of different cultures. Such a widening of interactions has the potential to both enhance and hamper the life experiences of individuals in all facets of life
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