Health Care Utilization and Hypertension Management in Community-Based Elderly Korean Immigrants
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Health Care Utilization and Hypertension Management in Community-Based Elderly Korean Immigrants Mo-Kyung Sin • Anne Hirsch
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract Despite the nation-wide efforts to improve the health status of minority immigrants, studies documenting the outcomes of these efforts are lacking. The purpose of this study is to examine health care utilization and hypertension management in community-based elderly Korean immigrants to the US In this descriptive study, 70 elderly Korean immigrants were recruited from a Korean senior center and church. Health care utilization was assessed with a self-report questionnaire and hypertension management was ascertained through the objective measurement of blood pressure and a self-report questionnaire. Result indicated that 87 % of elderly Korean immigrants received regular health check-ups. Although their hypertension was not managed effectively, all participants with a diagnosis of hypertension were aware of it and were taking blood pressure medications. This study provides an overview of health care utilization and hypertension management in elderly Korean immigrants as well as ideas on ways to reach out to minority older adults for further health promoting interventions. Keywords Health care utilization Hypertension Koreans Older adults
Introduction Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other health problems. Hypertension is present in approximately one in three adults or 72 million people in the M.-K. Sin (&) A. Hirsch Seattle University College of Nursing, 901 12th Ave, P.O. Box 222000, Seattle, WA 98122-1090, USA e-mail: [email protected]
US, and contributes to over seven million deaths worldwide each year [1]. Older adults, over the age of 65 years, have the highest prevalence of hypertension at 69.7 % of the overall US prevalence of hypertension [2]. Despite the serious health risks associated with hypertension, 30 % of people with hypertension are not under medical treatment and only 46 % have their blood pressure under control [2]. Racial/ethnic minority groups in the US have a higher prevalence of hypertension, which contributes to racial/ ethnic disparities in morbidity and mortality in the US [3, 4]. The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis [5] found that the incidence of hypertension was higher for middleaged and older adult blacks aged between 45 and 74 years, compared with whites in this study of 3,146 participants. The incidence of uncontrolled blood pressure was also higher in non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican Americans compared with non-Hispanic whites, after adjustment for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics [4]. Researchers also found a high prevalence of hypertension among Korean American immigrants [3, 6, 7]. According to the 2009 Census, the Asian population accounted for 27.7 % of the total foreign-born populations in the US [8]. Elderly Korean immigrants (EKIs) are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the US [8]. Considering the increasing n
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