The World Is Not Mine – Barriers to Healthcare Access for Bangladeshi Rural Elderly Women

This study aimed to explore how this cohort related their healthcare access to their living circumstances and provided insight into how their healthcare access needs can be addressed. This study was a critical social theoretical exploration from conversational interviews h eld over three months with 25 elderly women in rural Bangladesh. Two critical social constructs, ‘emancipation’ of Habermas and ‘recognition’ of Honneth, were used in the exploration and explanation of the influence of personal circumstances, society and system on rural elderly women’s hea lthcare access. The concept of ‘social determinants of healthcare access’ is defined from the physical, emotive, symbolic and imaginative experiences of these women. Interviewing the women provided information for exploration of the determinants that characterized their experiences into an overa ll construct of ‘The World is Not Mine’. This construct represented four themes focusing on the exclusion from healthcare, oppressive socioeconomic condition, marginalization in social relationships and personal characteristics that led the women to avoid or delay access to modern healthcare. Th is study confirms that the rural elderly women require adequate policy responses from the government, and also need multiple support systems to secure adequate access to healthcare. As healthcare services are often a reflection of community values and human rights concerns for the elderly, there is a need of recognition a...
Source: Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research