Barriers and facilitators for health among older adult immigrants in the United States
Citation: Hawkins MM, Holliday DD, Weinhardt LS, et al. Barriers and facilitators of health among older adult immigrants in the United States: an integrative review of 20 years of literature. BMC Public Health. 2022;22(1):755.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported that they had no funding for this review.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles about barriers and facilitators for health among older adult immigrants in the United States of America (USA). They searched in February 2021 for articles published after January 2000. The authors included 145 studies that discussed a diverse range of immigrant groups.
What was found: Lack of English language proficiency, social exclusion, isolation, and poor mental health were barriers to health for older adult immigrants in the USA. Facilitators for health included participation in activities, formal education in the USA, and health insurance.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that policies to expand health insurance coverage and pathways to citizenship could improve access to healthcare. There is a need for culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare for older adult immigrants. Better measures are needed for complex concepts such as acculturation. Immigrant communities should be involved in community outreach and health education. Finally, it is important to address social isolation and increase social support.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, sex, and personal characteristics.
This summary was prepared by Riwa Deghaim, checked by Sneha Bhadti, and finalized by William Summerskill.