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Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access

BACKGROUND: Hill tribe children, an ethnic minority group in Thailand, experience wide-ranging social and health inequalities. Previous reports indicate that hill tribe children, especially age under 5 years, face social health disadvantages but little is known about the underlying causes. Exploring...

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Autores principales: Moonpanane, Katemanee, Pitchalard, Khanittha, Thepsaw, Jintana, Singkhorn, Onnalin, Potjanamart, Chomnard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9438234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36050759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08494-1
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author Moonpanane, Katemanee
Pitchalard, Khanittha
Thepsaw, Jintana
Singkhorn, Onnalin
Potjanamart, Chomnard
author_facet Moonpanane, Katemanee
Pitchalard, Khanittha
Thepsaw, Jintana
Singkhorn, Onnalin
Potjanamart, Chomnard
author_sort Moonpanane, Katemanee
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Hill tribe children, an ethnic minority group in Thailand, experience wide-ranging social and health inequalities. Previous reports indicate that hill tribe children, especially age under 5 years, face social health disadvantages but little is known about the underlying causes. Exploring healthcare utilization among hill tribe children is therefore essential and it may well provide some insight. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling techniques to recruit participants based on our criteria. In-depth interviews and focus-group discussions were employed to explore the experiences of parents (n = 20), community leaders (n = 20), and healthcare providers (n = 20) when caring for children aged under 5 years. Interview transcripts were coded, and thematic analysis was then performed. RESULTS: The participants shared their experiences with accessing healthcare services in underserved areas. Barriers to access was the central theme identified. Sub-themes included: (1) distance matters, (2) education and socioeconomic deprivation, (3) lack of cultural sensitivity, (4) communication problems, (5) tradition, beliefs, and differences in cultural practice, (6) lack of child health professionals, and (7) bureaucratic hurdles. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare services and environments must be transformed to provide healthcare services, education, and information appropriate to the cultures and beliefs prevalent in the hill tribe population. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08494-1.
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spelling pubmed-94382342022-09-03 Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access Moonpanane, Katemanee Pitchalard, Khanittha Thepsaw, Jintana Singkhorn, Onnalin Potjanamart, Chomnard BMC Health Serv Res Research BACKGROUND: Hill tribe children, an ethnic minority group in Thailand, experience wide-ranging social and health inequalities. Previous reports indicate that hill tribe children, especially age under 5 years, face social health disadvantages but little is known about the underlying causes. Exploring healthcare utilization among hill tribe children is therefore essential and it may well provide some insight. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling techniques to recruit participants based on our criteria. In-depth interviews and focus-group discussions were employed to explore the experiences of parents (n = 20), community leaders (n = 20), and healthcare providers (n = 20) when caring for children aged under 5 years. Interview transcripts were coded, and thematic analysis was then performed. RESULTS: The participants shared their experiences with accessing healthcare services in underserved areas. Barriers to access was the central theme identified. Sub-themes included: (1) distance matters, (2) education and socioeconomic deprivation, (3) lack of cultural sensitivity, (4) communication problems, (5) tradition, beliefs, and differences in cultural practice, (6) lack of child health professionals, and (7) bureaucratic hurdles. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare services and environments must be transformed to provide healthcare services, education, and information appropriate to the cultures and beliefs prevalent in the hill tribe population. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08494-1. BioMed Central 2022-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9438234/ /pubmed/36050759 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08494-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Moonpanane, Katemanee
Pitchalard, Khanittha
Thepsaw, Jintana
Singkhorn, Onnalin
Potjanamart, Chomnard
Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title_full Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title_fullStr Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title_full_unstemmed Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title_short Healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: Barriers to access
title_sort healthcare service utilization of hill tribe children in underserved communities in thailand: barriers to access
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9438234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36050759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08494-1
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