Social adaptation and health services utilization among elderly Vietnamese refugees in Honolulu

This research mainly examines the social adaptation and health services utilization of 95 elderly Vietnamese refugees by adapting the Andersen behavioral model (1995). The study addressed five research questions and the findings revealed that (1) the elderly Vietnamese refugees in the sample had a good health status both physically, psychologically, and sociologically; (2) there were not unusual diseases found among the respondents. Age, gender, education level, employment status, Medicaid, the frequent contact with their family, and perceived health status had an expected relationship with the illness symptoms. Similar results were found, except for gender and educational level, when these variables regressed with number of medically diagnosed diseases; (3) the depression scores revealed that the elderly Vietnamese refugees in the study experienced good mental well-being; (4) the pattern of health services utilization and the relationship with factors in the Andersen model revealed that these respondents favored the use of Western medicine over Chinese medicine and other services. This fact was rather different from the results from studies conducted elsewhere, that Vietnamese refugees tend to underutilize the government services including health service; (5) the comparison of use of Western medicine and Chinese medicine showed however that some people seek help for their illness not only from one system but also from other system which are available in the community. This pattern is expected for elderly refugees who came from a developing country which had their own concepts and practices regarding health and illness.