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“Worrying About Getting Sick in the Future”: Lived Experience of Health Seeking and Healthcare Utilization Among Korean Immigrant Nail Salon Workers

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Abstract

To understand the health and safety concerns of Korean immigrant women nail salon workers in the Greater New York City area and their experiences of health seeking and health service utilization, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretive hermeneutic phenomenology. Most worried about working in nail salons and experienced work-related health symptoms. However, they were disinclined toward personal protective device use because of discomfort and inconvenience. Major barriers to healthcare utilization limited their healthcare use to times when they had intolerable symptoms, preventing opportunities for regular screening tests. To overcome these limitations, workers actively sought available resources and health-related information online and through personal networks, the latter facilitated by living in a Korean community. Despite efforts to maintain their health and manage their symptoms, Korean nail salon workers worried about getting sick as they got older due to prolonged occupational chemical exposure and limited healthcare access. Appropriate education and intervention should aim to resolve current barriers to personal protective device use and healthcare use and provide a source of care for uninsured workers.

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Funding

The authors indicate that research reported in this publication was supported by (1) PSC-CUNY Research Award Program, the City University of New York (69147-0047) and (2) 2017 Undergraduate Research Fellowship from Hunter College Undergraduate Research Initiative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hunter College, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Jin Young Seo & Shiela M. Strauss

  2. SangJi University, Wonju, South Korea

    Hee Kyung Kim

  3. Fresenius Dialysis, Fairview, NJ, 07022, USA

    Jueun Euam

  4. New York University, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Shiela M. Strauss

Authors
  1. Jin Young Seo
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  2. Hee Kyung Kim
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  3. Jueun Euam
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  4. Shiela M. Strauss
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin Young Seo.

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This project was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hunter College, the City University of New York. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Seo, J.Y., Kim, H., Euam, J. et al. “Worrying About Getting Sick in the Future”: Lived Experience of Health Seeking and Healthcare Utilization Among Korean Immigrant Nail Salon Workers. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 7, 508–518 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-019-00679-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-019-00679-5

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