Exploring self-medication practices and managing health among Pakistani immigrant women in the United States

Literature has explored self-medication practices and its health implications with focus on immigrants, mostly Latinos in the United States, paying less or no attention to other minority population in particular Pakistani community. This study explores the selfmedication practices among Pakistani immigrant women in Houston, Texas, and describes reasons associated with it, to better understand their culture, beliefs and patterns. Qualitative methods were utilized including nineteen in-depth interviews with married immigrant Pakistani women, between the age of 25–39 years and five key-informant interviews with senior women of the community. After capturing the participant women stories, data was analyzed using narrative and thematic content analysis. Results show that immigrant Pakistani women adopt various approaches to meet their own and families’ health needs including self-medication with either over-the-counter or non-prescribed antibiotics, which may have serious public health implications. There are gaps in knowledge and perceptions especially antibiotic use among this community. Future research to extend on the findings from this study for adaptation or development of a culturally appropriate program to slowdown this practice and increase utilization of healthcare is strongly recommended. This data informs and adds to our understanding of the social isolation and disconnection that are prevalent for new immigrants, as well as the diminished trust in the U.S. healthcare system that can be further precipitated in the process of migration. Received: August 31, 2018 Accepted: November 26, 2018 Published: December 10, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Shahid U. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Corresponding author: Umber Shahid, Department of Management, Policy & Community Health, University of Texas, Health science Center at Houston, USA E-mail:umber.shahid@uth.tmc.edu Citation: Shahid, U, Mc Curdy SA, Fernandez-Esquer ME, Franzini L. Exploring self-medication practices and managing health among Pakistani immigrant women in the United States. Gender and Women’s Studies. 2018; 2(1):6. Open Access Gender and Women’s Studies 1 of 11 Shahid et al.,Gender and Women’s Studies. 2018, 2(1):6.