Hmong American concepts of health, healing, and illness and their experience with conventional medicine
Author(s):
Cha, Dia
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of Colorado at Boulder, 2000.
Pages:
251
Language:
English
Abstract:
This research project examines Hmong American concepts of health, healing, and illness and the Hmong American experience with conventional medicine. It identifies specific factors that either obstruct or enable health care delivery to Hmong Americans in Colorado. There are approximately 250,000 Hmong in the United States, with about 7,000 Hmong living in the Denver/Boulder metropolitan area where this study was conducted. The methods of data collection included focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, one-on-one interviews, and participant-observation. The research design encompasses qualitative, open-ended questionnaires used during the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Quantitative questionnaires formed the basis of a health history survey, for which forty Hmong American healers, patients, and community leaders were interviewed. This research project began in May, 1999, and ended in November, 2000. The central findings of this research project are, (1) the majority of Hmong Americans in Colorado have health insurance and use conventional medicine as a resource, but still depend heavily on traditional medicine; (2) nonChristian Hmong observe no restrictions in using all types of traditional medicine, while Christian Hmong tend to limit themselves to herbal medicines and massage therapeutic treatments; (3) there is a lack of health care promotion in a culturally appropriate context for the Hmong in Colorado, who, moreover, have limited access to general health information, especially in the Hmong language; (4) both Hmong illness and health treatment approaches are viewed through a lens of cultural prejudice which leads conventional healthcare professionals to regard them as somatization; (5) the most significant factor contributing to inadequate conventional healthcare delivery is the language barrier; (6) after two decades in the United States, many Hmong have developed chronic diseases; and (7) the Hmong social organization, revolving, as it does, around clan and lineage, has not changed much, and most Hmong still organize their allegiances and activities around this clan and lineage system which frequently determine their responses to illness and their search for healthcare.