Experience of reorganizing life in married immigrant women with chronic disease; With three Asian countries at the center

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this study was to describe the lived experience structures of married immigrant women with chronic diseases in reorganizing their lives in a variety of situations and contexts.Methods: This study applied grounded theory approach, and the participants were 15 married immigrant women with chronic disease. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews and then analyzed by the method in Strauss and Corbin (1998).Results: The extracted data were organized 41 concepts, 21 subcategories, and 8 categories. The central phenomenon was determined to be “Life turned into a chronic disease.” The causal conditions were “Undergoing physical and mental stress from marriage”, “Lack of information on chronic diseases.” The extracted contexts was “The demand for health resources.” action and interaction strategies, “Finding problems and solutions.” The intervention conditions influencing the strategies was “Establishing a support system.” The result of such action was “To settle down in a way of life that suits your conditions.”Conclusion: By providing a comprehensive and integrative understanding of how married immigrant women with chronic disease reorganize their lives, the study is expected to contribute to the development of social systems and national policies.