New to a country: Barriers for international students to access health services and opportunities for design

Charlotte Tang, Xinning Gui, Yunan Chen, Mohamed Magueramane

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Newcomers to a country often face difficulties in adapting to the new healthcare system. Understanding their perceived barriers in utilizing healthcare services in the host country is crucial for designing health IT to meet their health needs. In this paper, we present an interview study of 30 international students attending a U.S. university. We identified barriers that hindered them from accessing health services in the host country – difficulties in understanding health services information, high healthcare costs, unfamiliar and cumbersome health practices, negative beliefs toward western medicine, and communication and language barrier. We also uncovered their alternative solutions by actively seeking health services information, adopting preventive measures, and self-diagnosing and self-treating with medicine brought from their home countries. Finally, we derived implications for designing health IT and services to better support international students’ healthcare.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, 2018
EditorsNoga Minsky, Venet Osmani
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Print)9781450364508
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Event12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2018 - New York, United States
Duration: May 21 2018May 24 2018

Publication series

NamePervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare
ISSN (Print)2153-1633

Other

Other12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew York
Period5/21/185/24/18

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Health Informatics

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