Primary healthcare providers’ attitudes and beliefs about the menopause-related care needs of women who have migrated from low- and middle-income countries to Australia
Karin A. Stanzel A B , Karin Hammarberg A and Jane Fisher A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Global and Women’s Health, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Level 4, 553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Vic. 3004, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: karin.stanzel@monash.edu
Australian Journal of Primary Health 26(1) 88-94 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY19132
Submitted: 28 June 2019 Accepted: 05 September 2019 Published: 18 November 2019
Abstract
Health behaviour during midlife is linked to health outcomes in older age. Primary healthcare providers (PHCPs) are ideally placed to provide health-promoting information opportunistically to women in midlife. The aim of this study was to explore PHCPs views about the menopause-related care needs of migrant women from low- and middle-income countries and what they perceive as barriers and enablers for providing this. Of the 139 PHCPs who responded to an anonymous online survey, less than one-third (29.9%) routinely offered menopause-related information during consultations with migrant women. Most agreed that short appointments times (70.8%), lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate menopause information (82.5%) and lack of confidence in providing menopause-related care (32.5%) are barriers for providing comprehensive menopause-related care to migrant women. To overcome these, a menopause-specific Medicare item number and a one-stop website with health information in community languages were suggested. These findings suggest that menopause-related care is not routinely offered by PHCPs to migrant women from low- and middle- income countries and that their capacity to do this may be improved with adequate educational and structural support.
Additional keywords: health education, health literacy, health promotion, primary care, women’s health.
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