Men of refugee and migrant backgrounds in Australia: a scoping review of sexual and reproductive health research
Zelalem Mengesha
A * , Alexandra J. Hawkey B , Mazen Baroudi C , Jane M. Ussher B and Janette Perz B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Health Equity Training, Research & Evaluation (CHETRE); UNSW Australia Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity; A Unit of Population Health; member of the Ingham Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
B Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
C Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Sexual Health 20(1) 20-34 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH22073
Submitted: 3 May 2022 Accepted: 25 September 2022 Published: 20 October 2022
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Australia’s National Men’s Health Strategy 2020–2030 identifies refugee and migrant men from culturally and lingustically diverse backgrounds as priority groups for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) interventions. The paucity of SRH research focusing on refugee and migrant men is a significant gap to advance men’s health and policy. Hence, this review aimed to synthesise the available evidence on refugee and migrant men’s SRH needs, understandings and experiences of accessing services after resettlement in Australia. A systematic search of peer reviewed literature in PubMed, Scopus, and PsyInfo was made. A World Health Organization framework for operationalising sexual health and its relationship with reproductive health was used to map the identified studies. The socio-ecological framework was applied to thematically synthesise data extracted from individual studies and identify factors that influence the SRH of refugee and migrant men. We included 38 papers in the review. The majority of sexual health studies (16) were about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), mainly HIV (12), followed by sexual health education and information (5) and sexual functioning (3). Reproductive health studies focused on contraceptive counselling and provision (3), antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care (1) and safe abortion care (1). Several factors influenced refugee and migrant men’s SRH, including a lack of access to SRH information, language barriers and stigma. We found that SRH literature on refugee and migrant men focuses on STIs, meaning other areas of SRH are poorly understood. We identified key gaps in research on experiences of, and access to, comprehensive SRH care.
Keywords: Australasia, health promotion, health services, men, migrant and mobile populations, refugee, reproductive health, sexual health.
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