International Perspective on Health Literacy and Health Equity: Factors That Influence the Former Soviet Union Immigrants

Uliana Kostareva, Cheryl L. Albright, Eva-Maria Berens, Diane Levin-Zamir, Altyn Aringazina, Maria Lopatina, Luba L. Ivanov and Tetine L. Sentell
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Uliana Kostareva: School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Cheryl L. Albright: School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Eva-Maria Berens: Interdisciplinary Center for Health Literacy Research, Bielefeld University, 33699 Bielefeld, Germany
Diane Levin-Zamir: Department of Health Education and Promotion, Clalit Health Services, School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Haifa 31000, Israel
Altyn Aringazina: Kazakhstan School of Public Health, Medical University, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan
Maria Lopatina: National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 101000 Moscow, Russia
Luba L. Ivanov: Chamberlain College of Nursing, Chamberlain University, Downers Grove, 60515 IL, USA
Tetine L. Sentell: Office of Public Health Studies, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Among the world’s 272 million international migrants, more than 25 million are from the former Soviet Union (FSU), yet there is a paucity of literature available about FSU immigrants’ health literacy. Besides linguistic and cultural differences, FSU immigrants often come from a distinct healthcare system affecting their ability to find, evaluate, process, and use health information in the host countries. In this scoping review and commentary, we describe the health literacy issues of FSU immigrants and provide an overview of FSU immigrants’ health literacy based on the integrated health literacy model. We purposefully consider the three most common locations where FSU immigrants have settled: the USA, Germany, and Israel. For context, we describe the healthcare systems of the three host countries and the two post-Soviet countries to illustrate the contribution of system-level factors on FSU immigrants’ health literacy. We identify research gaps and set a future research agenda to help understand FSU immigrants’ health literacy across countries. Amidst the ongoing global population changes related to international migration, this article contributes to a broad-scope understanding of health literacy among FSU immigrants related to the system-level factors that may also apply to other immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Keywords: immigrant; migrant; refugee; Soviet; Russian-speaking; access to care; healthcare system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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