Awareness of Communicable Diseases Among Migrants in St Petersburg

Designing disease prevention campaigns requires information on the level of awareness of infections among target groups. Only limited data of this sort is available with respect to migrants, even though their numbers are high enough to impact on general health situation in certain geographic areas....

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Cahiers d'Asie centrale 2018, p.223-237
1. Verfasser: Sergeev, Boris
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Designing disease prevention campaigns requires information on the level of awareness of infections among target groups. Only limited data of this sort is available with respect to migrants, even though their numbers are high enough to impact on general health situation in certain geographic areas. Empirical study among labor migrants in St Petersburg (n=150) was administered by a team of Russian and Finnish researchers. It included assessments of migrants’ awareness of hiv, hepatitis tb and stis; involvement in risk behavior such as sexual contacts, alcohol and drug consumption; as well as ranking of various sources in terms of their importance as suppliers of information on communicable diseases. The results revealed considerable fluctuations in awareness level among infectious diseases, with knowledge of symptoms and prevention techniques for hepatitis being especially low. Also of notice is considerable gender gap, with women being better informed about transmission routes and prevention methods against infectious diseases. Furthermore, women are more likely to contact medical professionals to collect medical information while men tend to rely on mass media, educational institutions and friends as sources of information on communicable diseases. Given their role as suppliers of health information for migrants, medical professionals should be encouraged to share health advice with migrants as existing opportunities remain underutilized. Specifically, there is a tendency to overlook opportunities provided by pre-and post-test counselling sessions when migrants undergo mandatory testing for infectious diseases. The respective shift in funding priorities to support medical professionals delivering health information to migrants is advisable. The study explores disease awareness among migrants on hiv, tb, sti and hepatitis while highlighting various socio-economic and behavior factors that may put them at risk of being infected. Based on the respective empirical findings, a number of specific recommendations on designing disease prevention programs are provided.
ISSN:1270-9247
2075-5325