Are 'Low Socioeconomic Status' and 'Religiousness' barriers to minority women's contraceptive use in Sweden and Denmark?: A qualitative interrogation of a common argument in health research
2018 (English)In: European Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1101-1262, E-ISSN 1464-360X, Vol. 28, no Suppl 1, p. 121-121Article in journal, Meeting abstract (Other academic) Published
Abstract [en]
Background: ‘Low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religious barriers’ have been presented as nearly universal explanatory reasons for why minority women are less likely than majority women in Scandinavian countries to use contraception. Recent studies have warned against giving such statistically ‘objective’ theories undue importance in the formulation of clinical recommendations. Drawing on this recent critique, the aim of this study was to qualitatively explore how ‘low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religiousness’ intersect with Muslim minority women’s contraceptive decisions. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Denmark and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. Data analysis was inspired by naturalistic inquiry. Findings: We found that a low level of education and low income were not necessarily obstacles for women’s use of contraception, but strong imperatives for women to wait having children until their life circumstances were more stable. Arguments grounded in Islamic dictates on contraception became powerful reasons for women to decide it was religiously correct to postpone having children, in case the financial and emotional resources were not yet at hand. Conclusions: We have shown that the dominant theory about that ‘low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religiousness’ are paramount barriers to minority women’s use of contraception must be challenged. When formulating suggestions for how to provide contraceptive counselling to minority women in Denmark and Sweden, one must also take into account factors such as low financial security as well as religious convictions which can be strong imperatives for women to use contraception. Main messages: The use of broad group-categorisations for understanding individuals’ contraceptive behaviours should be challenged The validity of initiating ‘targeted interventions’ towards large heterogeneous minority groups in Scandinavian contraceptive counselling should be critically discussed
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford University Press, 2018. Vol. 28, no Suppl 1, p. 121-121
Keywords [en]
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health, contraceptive agents, denmark, socioeconomic factors
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Health and society
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-5508DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/cky048.028ISI: 000432430700343Local ID: 26566OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-5508DiVA, id: diva2:1402368
Conference
1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health, Edinburgh, UK (17-19 May 2018)
2020-02-282020-02-282024-06-17Bibliographically approved