Do traditional beliefs and practices pose barriers?
Christopher N. H. Jenkins, Thao Le, Stephen J. McPhee, Susan Stewart and Ngoc The Ha Social Science & Medicine, 1996, vol. 43, issue 7, pages 1049-1056 Abstract: Some have speculated that underutilization of Western health services among non-Western populations can be explained by traditional health beliefs and practices rooted deep within cultures. These beliefs and practices may act as barriers to access to and utilization of services. Among Vietnamese, in particular, a number of traditional health beliefs and practices have been identified which are said to pose barriers to Western medical care. No studies to date, however, have examined this hypothesis empirically. To examine this hypothesis, we measured traditional health beliefs and practices among Vietnamese in the San Francisco Bay area and analyzed the relationships between these factors and access to health care and use of preventive health services. The results of this study show clearly that many Vietnamese possess traditio
