Challenges in the provision of sexual and reproductive health care to refugee and migrant women : a Q methodological study of health professional perspectives

This Q methodological study was conducted to examine the perspectives of health professionals in providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care to refugee and migrant women. Forty-seven health professionals rank-ordered 42 statements and commented on their rankings in subsequent open-ended questions. A bi-person factor analysis was performed and factors were extracted according to the centroid method with a varimax rotation. Seven factors each with a distinct and meaningful viewpoint were identified. These factors are: “Communication difficulties—hurdles to counselling”, “Lack of access to culturally appropriate care”, “Navigating SRH care”, “Cultural constraints on effective communication”, “Effects of the lack of cultural competency”, “Impacts of low income and language barrier” and “SRH services are accessible, but not culturally relevant”. A more culturally adaptive healthcare model that considers refugee and migrant women’s linguistic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds; and engages health professionals on an ongoing process of building cultural competency is central to improve SRH access to these women