Understanding Oral Health Help-Seeking: Beliefs, Barriers and Facilitators Among Middle Eastern Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Abstract

Oral health is a significant health issue with marked inequalities for people of refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds. However, despite evidence of oral health disparities and unequal service access for this population, there is limited research exploring help-seeking behaviours among people with refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds, particularly in Australia. Andersen’s Model of Healthcare Utilisation (1968; 1995) has frequently been employed to explore use of health services, but has not been applied to oral health help-seeking behaviours among this population. To address these research gaps, the aims of this study were to improve understandings of Middle Eastern refugees’ and asylum seekers’ oral health help-seeking behaviours and the barriers and facilitators to their dental service use, and to determine the utility of Andersen’s Model in this context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 people from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan who had recently arrived as refugees or asylum seekers, and six oral health practitioners with professional experience with this population. Results were analysed using a combination of inductive and deductive thematic analysis, and provided some support for the use of Andersen’s Model in relation to oral health help-seeking for this population, but also identified some limitations with this approach. Results of this study support a revised version of Andersen’s Model, and highlight the need for a tailored approach to understanding oral health help-seeking among peoples with diverse refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds, with greater consideration of the impacts of health and resettlement policies, service experiences and migration experiences on oral health outcomes.