Abstract
Objective:
This study aims to explore immigrant women living with HIV’s perception of their communication with healthcare providers, the use of interpreters and access to health information.
Method:
A qualitative study, gathering data through in-depth interviews and focus group discussion was used. The participants were immigrant women living with HIV in Norway and interpreters.
Result:
Communication between immigrant women living with HIV and healthcare providers is poor as a result of the language barrier present, limited consultation time with doctors, and fear of stigma. Communication is also negatively affected by the limited use of qualified interpreters and fear of using interpreters from the same country as the immigrant women. The result also shows that immigrant women living with HIV expect more health information from doctors, and want doctors to be the primary source of information about HIV.
Conclusion:
Healthcare providers need to offer health information based on individual needs and need to address the concerns of immigrant women living with HIV. In this regard information from treating doctors is most crucial. Immigrant women with HIV consider the usefulness of interpreters as very limited, mostly due to the fact that the interpreters provided by the health services compromise the patients need for confidentiality. This creates anxiety among immigrant HIV positive women, due to fear of exposing their HIV status to friends and other members their immigrant communities. The use of trained interpreters will to some extent improve communication between patients and healthcare providers, and will also reduce the breaches of patient confidentiality causing fear amongst HIV immigrant women.