THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON HEALTHCARE SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF KALDERASH ROMA. A QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Abstract

Some ethnic groups, as the Roma, are thought to have different healthcare seeking behaviour. This paper aims to provide findings on the attitudes, preferences, expectations and concerns of a Roma ethnic group (Kalderash) regarding inpatient hospitalization. The findings focus on a series of data analysed from semi-structured interviews with 23 Kalderash patients and caregivers from Zanea community (county of Iasi, north-eastern part of Romania). Kalderash people have negative attitudes towards hospitalization and report significant anxieties. The findings reveal specificities related to patients’ ethnic background, cultural views and communication barriers. For their part, Roma are often suspicious of non-Roma people and institutions. Roma ideas about hospital are closely related to notions of purity and impurity. These basic concepts affect everyday life during inpatient hospitalization, including the way Roma deal with eating and washing, physicians and treatments, or coping with illness and death. When they seek medical care, Roma often come into conflict with medical personnel who find their behaviour confusing and demanding. Roma’s cultural beliefs and attitudes underlie their behaviour when they are being confronted with a serious illness and are seeking inpatient medical care. Attention to cultural diversity does matter, as this should lead to different medical behavioural patterns.

Keywords

• Roma
• hospitalization
• medical setting
• illness
• purity
• customary law