Study points to difficulties of immigrants in health management in Portugal
O work, which included the participation of 1,126 immigrants of different nationalities residing in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, indicated that half of the respondents do not have enough information to manage their own health and that 62% would like more support from health professionals to help them in understanding and managing the system. However, most surveys ensured the initiative in their health management.
Entitled “Health Literacy, Health Promotion and Social Cohesion in Migrant Populations”, the ENSP document from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa highlighted as major challenges before the access to sufficient information to make decisions, the identification of credible sources of information and the Relationship with sector professionals, stressing for those responsible for the study the importance of promoting literature.
“Thinking about health literacy means thinking about the person’s life path, in a multisectoral approach, where policies and operations are integrated to respond to people’s real needs, enhancing their resources, knowledge and skills. Understanding this dynamic is fundamental for adequacy of interventions to the different profiles of health literacy”, said Sónia Dias, coordinator of the study and professor at ENSP.
Within the immigrant community, there are still inequalities in terms of health literacy that weigh, according to the document, especially on women, those over 45 years of age and those with less education or special education. This reality also extends to foreigners in an irregular situation in the country and to newcomers, who denote greater ignorance of the national health services.
The study did not ignore the covid-19 pandemic and also analyzed its effects on the immigrant population, confirming the worsening of inequalities and the significant impact on these people’s health. One in five recognized that the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus had affected their health, with the numbers being more negative among women, the elderly, the most disadvantaged and those with more precarious migration status.
“Given the communities’ own characteristics, it is urgent to think about measures aimed at immigrants in order to bring them closer to care or, in the other sense, to bring care closer to the population. Another relevant aspect is to strengthen support for associations that are in the field and work with these communities,” explained Sónia Dias.
Simultaneously, 53.6% of participants reported feelings of feeling, anxiety or sadness in a few days during the pandemic period and 26.4% to assume these feelings in most days.
Regarding access to health care, 43.5% of respondents indicated that this has become more complicated since the beginning of the pandemic, which in Portugal happened in March 2020. As in other approaches in this work, complaints were more irritated among women (49.7%) than in men (36.3%), we certainly do not have lower numbers and in immigrants in a situation to be regularized in the country.
“Knowing that different people, at different times, have different needs, implications for continuing efforts to ‘leave no one behind’, with inclusive, dynamic and proximity measures. It is necessary to be on the ground, to know the contexts of life, define priorities and intervention effectively and effectively, in order to contribute to more inclusive, equitable societies and to greater gains in health, quality of life and well-being of the entire population”, concluded the study.
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