Stakeholder views on factors influencing the wellbeing and health sector engagement of young Asian New Zealanders

Abstract

INTRODUCTION In New Zealand, while the term ‘Asians’ in popular discourse means East and South-east Asian peoples, Statistics New Zealand’s definition includes people of many nationalities from East, South and South-east Asia, all with quite different cultural norms, taboos and degrees of conservatism. In a context where ‘Asian’ youth data are typically presented in aggregate form, there are notable gaps in knowledge regarding the contextual determinants of health in this highly heterogeneous group. This qualitative study explored key stakeholder views on issues that would be most useful to explore on the health and wellbeing of Asian youth and processes that would foster engagement of Asian youth in health research. METHODS Interviews were conducted with six key stakeholders whose professional activities were largely focused on the wellbeing of Asian people. The general inductive approach was used to identify and analyse themes in the qualitative text data. FINDINGS Six broad themes were identified from the key stakeholder interviews framed as priority areas that need further exploration: cultural identity, integration and acculturation; barriers to help-seeking; aspects to consider when engaging Asian youth in research (youth voice, empowerment and participatory approach to research); parental influence and involvement in health research; confidentiality and anonymity; and capacity building and informing policy. CONCLUSION With stakeholders strongly advocating the engagement of Asian youth in the health research agenda this study highlights the importance of engaging youth alongside service providers to collaborate on research and co-design responsive primary health care services in a multicultural setting. KEYWORDS Asian youth; New Zealand; health research; minority health; Community and social participation

A systematic review to identify research priority setting in Black and minority ethnic health and evaluate their processes

“…They concerned Latino health in the US [ 24 , 37 ], refugee and immigrant health in the US [ 25 , 26 , 32 ], the health of indigenous Australians [ 28 , 29 , 36 ], the health of native Americans [ 27 ], the health of Asian youth in New Zealand [ 34 , 35 ], South Asian health in the UK [ 30 , 33 ], the health of minority and underrepresented communities in the US [ 22 , 23 ], and Black and Hispanic health in the US [ 21 , 31 ]. Six studies did not include patient and public involvement (PPI) as participants in establishing research priorities [ 21 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 32 , 35 ], Five studies had PPI involvement alongside other stakeholders such as healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, and decision makers [ 26 , 28 , 30 , 33 , 37 ]. Four studies involved only BAME PPI as participants [ 29 , 31 , 34 , 36 ] and 2 studies involved multi-ethnic PPI in identifying priorities and highlighted the differences in identified priorities by ethnicity [ 22 , 23 ].…”

“…Top identified priorities included the need for greater inclusion of Latino children in medical research [ 24 ], the design and delivery and location of mental health services for refugees [ 25 ], access and engagement with suicide prevention services for people from immigrant and refugee backgrounds [ 26 ], Expansive commitments of indigenous approaches to inquiry for suicide in indigenous populations [ 27 ], cancer prevention and early detection in indigenous Australians [ 28 ], ethical principles for aboriginal e-health research [ 29 ], research on quality of life for minority and underserved populations [ 22 ], child health research and mental health for minority and underserved populations [ 23 ], complex, intergenerational nature of health involving social, cultural, and environmental determinants of health for Aboriginal and Torres strait islander communities [ 36 ], research into the effectiveness of alternative medicines for South Asian children [ 33 ], promoting exercise following surgery for South Asian patients undergoing knee replacement surgery [ 30 ], evaluating newcomer programs identifying how family and community stressors affect newly arrived immigrants and refugee adolescents functioning in school [ 32 ], how does a mothers stress affect the baby? for women of colour [ 31 ], policies that subsidise accessibility of healthy foods to improve diet among Latino families [ 37 ], integration of behavioural and cultural components into research to prevent and treat paediatric obesity in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities [ 21 ], cultural differences and identity for young Asian New Zealanders [ 34 ] and cultural identity, integration and acculturation in young Asian new Zealanders [ 35 ].…”

“…An appropriate level of BAME PPI involvement was included in most studies [ 22 , 23 , 28 – 31 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 ]. Six studies did not report any BAME PPI [ 21 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 32 , 35 ] and one study used a very small sample of BAME PPI [ 26 ].…”

“…No studies reported plans to update research priorities. Despite this, in a small number of studies, researchers did go on to conduct further research priority exercises for the same ethnic population they studied in an earlier research priority study [ 22 , 25 , 35 ], albeit with the aim of more diverse stakeholder inclusion [ 23 , 34 ] and to establish a research agenda in a different topic area [ 26 ]. The most recent study included in this review expressed a desire to conduct a similar study with other ethnic groups [ 30 ].…”

“…All 17 studies can be seen in Table 3. The topic areas were child obesity [21,24], mental health [25], suicide [26,27], cancer [28], E-health [29], knee replacement surgery [30], pre-term birth [31], healthy school development [32], and in health more generally [22][23][24][33][34][35][36]. The prioritisation exercises were conducted to determine health research priorities in these topic areas for a range of different ethnicities in high income countries.…”