{"id":1396,"date":"2026-08-04T16:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/portfolio\/navigating-cultural-health-and-information-landscapes-a-user-focused-approach-to-immigrant-health-in-a-nordic-context\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:09:20","slug":"navigating-cultural-health-and-information-landscapes-a-user-focused-approach-to-immigrant-health-in-a-nordic-context","status":"publish","type":"academic_item","link":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/portfolio\/navigating-cultural-health-and-information-landscapes-a-user-focused-approach-to-immigrant-health-in-a-nordic-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating Cultural, Health, and Information Landscapes: A User-focused Approach to Immigrant Health in a Nordic Context"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As an immigrant who moved to Finland permanently, I have experienced the significant challenges of using the Finnish healthcare system, such as dealing with the dental appoint-ment booking system in Turku, which was accessible only in the local languages, either in Finnish or Swedish.When I arrived, I had to overcome language barriers, unfamiliar medical practices, and a culture different from my home country. These challenges are common for many im-migrants in the Nordic countries, not just me. This experience motivated me to pursue myacademic research into how immigrants\u2019 access and use health-related information and ser-vices in Nordic countries, as well as what barriers they face. Furthermore, I noticed a lack of existing research in this area, which reinforced my commitment to investigating this topic.Health information refers to a broad spectrum of information, such as details about different available health services, disease prevention methods, and health promotion pro-grammes in a country. Health information is accessible through different mediums.For immigrants, reliable and comprehensive health information is absolutely neces-sary\u2014it bridges the gap between an unfamiliar healthcare system and their specific health needs, facilitating informed decisions about their health needs, understanding their medical rights, and navigating the available health-related information and services in a new country.Immigrants face many barriers when accessing healthcare services and information in a new country. Not only are these barriers logistical and linguistic, but they also have deep roots in the beliefs, perceptions, traditions, cultures, and habits that shapethe immigrants\u2019 health-seeking behaviours. In many cultures, it is common to receive immediate medications for any minor illness\u2014a practice that contrasts sharply with the Nordic approach, where doc-tors typically conduct detailed medical examinations before prescribing any medication. This difference in practice can lead to misunderstandings and feelings among immi-grants about receiving inadequate care because they expect immediate remedies and per-ceive the care as unnecessarily delayed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahmadinia, H., (2024). Navigating Cultural, Health, and Information Landscapes A User-focused Approach to Immigrant Health in a Nordic Context, Informaatiotutkimus, 43(3-4), 29\u201335.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"had_date":"2024-01-01","had_date_precision":"day","had_venue":"Informaatiotutkimus, 43(3\u20134), 1\u20137","had_authors":"Ahmadinia, H.","had_external_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.23978\/inf.146185","had_doi":"10.23978\/inf.146185","had_citation":"Ahmadinia, H. (2024). Navigating Cultural, Health, and Information Landscapes: A User-focused Approach to Immigrant Health in a Nordic Context. Informaatiotutkimus, 43(3\u20134), 1\u20137. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.23978\/inf.146185","had_meta_label":"Peer-reviewed journal article","had_amount":"","had_location":"","had_topic":"","had_field":"Immigrant health; Information behaviour; Nordic countries","had_method":"Research overview","had_data_source":"","had_participants":"","had_platform":"","had_level":"Doctoral dissertation","had_publisher":"Informaatiotutkimus","had_language":"English","had_jufo":"","had_institution":"\u00c5bo Akademi University","had_students":"","had_credits":"","had_format":"Journal article","had_city":"","had_latitude":"","had_longitude":"","had_quantity":"","had_amount_eur":"","had_currency":"","had_country":"","had_project_id":"","had_featured":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[123,124,125],"academic_type":[105],"class_list":["post-1396","academic_item","type-academic_item","status-publish","hentry","tag-immigrant-health","tag-information-behaviour","tag-nordic-countries","academic_type-journal-papers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_item\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/academic_item"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_item\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_item\/1396\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"academic_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahmadinia.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_type?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}