Canadian Journal on Aging
Volume 38, Issue 2, 2019, Pages 193-209

Older Immigrants' Access to Primary Health Care in Canada: A Scoping Review (Review)

Wang L.* , Guruge S. , Montana G.
  • a Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
  • b Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
  • c Environics Analytics, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

Aging and immigration have significantly shaped the population composition in Canada, where immigrants make up increasingly large proportions of the older adult population. This scoping review examines the existing knowledge surrounding older immigrants' access to, and utilization of, primary care physicians, who play a pivotal role in the delivery of primary care, preventive care, and mental health care. We applied Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework to search databases for Canadian-based, peer-reviewed English-language articles on the topic and examined 31 articles in detail. Three focus areas emerged: access and utilization of primary care, health promotion and cancer screening, and utilization of mental health services. Older immigrants face intertwining access barriers related to health literacy, language, culture, health beliefs, spatial inequality, and structural circumstances. The review provides a thorough understanding of the status of access to care among older immigrants in Canada, and yields policy implications to address their unmet health needs. © 2019 Canadian Association on Gerontology.

Author Keywords

health promotion and cancer screening aging Primary health care Mental health Older immigrants access barrier

Index Keywords

male Canada human female immigrant Aged general practitioner Review cancer screening mental health service health promotion English (language) health belief health literacy mental health care immigration human experiment aging

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85061911137&doi=10.1017%2fS0714980818000648&partnerID=40&md5=4de33f4c0c937b279ec449fd82c6a74c

DOI: 10.1017/S0714980818000648
ISSN: 07149808
Original Language: English