Cultural beliefs and attitudes toward health and health care among Asian-born women in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
To describe Asian-born women's cultural beliefs and attitudes towards health, illness, and health care practices.


METHODS
Online databases PubMed and CINAHL.


METHODS
Twenty-four studies published between January 2000 and May 2009 were retrieved based on the inclusion criteria.


METHODS
Data on publication year, authors, study sample, sample size (only Asian women in the United States were included), design, and related key findings were extracted.


METHODS
Data were organized under three categories: Asian cultural beliefs about health and illness, health promotion and illness prevention, and health care practices. Common beliefs across groups and unique beliefs within specific Asian ethnic groups were synthesized. The results indicated that different Asian ethnic groups share some health beliefs, but each group also has unique health beliefs. Existing literature on cultural health beliefs of Asian-born women is limited.


CONCLUSIONS
Health care providers can use the findings of this review to improve health care utilization among Asian-born women.
Zhao
Meng
M
School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460, USA. mengz@email.unc.edu
Esposito
Noreen
N
Wang
Kefang
K
D000368:Aged; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012945:Social Values; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult