Abstract
BackgroundWorldwide, international retirement migration is growing in its popularity and Japanese retirees choose Malaysia as their most preferred destination. This study examines the pertinent issues related to healthcare services as experienced by Japanese retirees in this country.Methods and resultsFrom January to March 2015, we conducted focus group discussions with 30 Japanese retirees who live in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. Guided by the social-ecological model, we discovered seven pertinent themes: ‘language barriers’,’healthcare decisions’, ‘medical check-ups’,‘healthcare insurance’, ‘nursing and palliative care’, ‘trust and distrust of healthcare services’, and ‘word-of-mouth information’.DiscussionWe identified seven pertinent issues related to healthcare services among Japanese retirees in Malaysia, of which four are especially important. These issues are explained as integrated themes within the social-ecological model. Language barriers prohibit them from having difficulty accessing to healthcare in Malaysia, but lack of will to improve their language skills exist among them. For that reason, they rely heavily on word-of-mouth information when seeking for healthcare. As a consequence, some develop feelings of trust and distrust of healthcare services. In addition, we have identified the needs for provide nursing and palliative care among Japanese retirees in Malaysia.ConclusionBased on the magnitude of the discussion, we concluded that there are four crucial healthcare issues among Japanese retirees; ‘language barriers’, ‘trust and distrust of healthcare services’, ‘word-of-mouth information’ and ‘nursing and palliative care’. We propose that further dialogue by healthcare stakeholders should be carried out to improve further the healthcare service provisions for Japanese retirees in Malaysia.
Highlights
Worldwide, international retirement migration is growing in its popularity and Japanese retirees choose Malaysia as their most preferred destination
We identified seven pertinent issues related to healthcare services among Japanese retirees in Malaysia, of which four are especially important
We propose that further dialogue by healthcare stakeholders should be carried out to improve further the healthcare service provisions for Japanese retirees in Malaysia
Summary
International retirement migration is growing in its popularity and Japanese retirees choose Malaysia as their most preferred destination. Retirees in Europe and North America migrate for various reasons, such as seeking a warmer climate, a new lifestyle, cheaper living costs and cultural experiences [11,12,13]. Warnes [13] categorised retirees who prefer to live in the countries with warmer climates into healthy migrants and migrants with chronic illnesses Healthy migrants are those who perform long distance migration, but are healthy both mentally and physically. The study reported a rather rigid integration process of Japanese retirees into the Malaysian society They claimed to experience difficulty in their efforts to integrate; and some, surprisingly, refused to integrate by intentionally keeping distance from the local community. Some of them live in a resort complex with golf courses, allowing them to indulge in golfing daily
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