Visible Minority Women and their Access to Primary Healthcare in Canada: A Scoping Review
Mitali Chaudhary1* and Bharati Sethi2
1Resident Physician, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2Associate Professor, Department of Political Studies, Trent University, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
*Corresponding Author: Mitali Chaudhary, Resident Physician, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Received:
October 03, 2022; Published: November 28, 2022
Abstract
This scoping review was conducted to summarize findings regarding the experiences of visible minority women with the Canadian primary healthcare system to identify the challenges they face in accessing care. Articles searched from databases and grey literature were selected if they (i) were peer-reviewed, (ii) were published between 1990 and 2019, (iii) discussed the experiences of visible minority women with primary healthcare, and (iv) studied Canadian populations. The information extracted was tagged and sorted into themes based on Bronfenbenner’s ecological systems theory which separates society into layers for analysis. Barriers to healthcare for visible minority women were found to arise from interpersonal, community, and systemic levels. The findings demonstrate that a lack of social support and insufficient culturally sensitive care, among other factors, prevent visible minority women from accessing health resources. We provide recommendations for where improvements might be made to deliver truly equitable healthcare to this population.
Keywords: Visible Minority; Barriers; Primary Healthcare; Canada
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