“If doctors ask me to talk, I will talk”: What influences Hong Kong foreign domestic workers’ perceived involvement in healthcare?

Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are typically afflicted with various health issues. Research on foreign domestic workers’ experiences utilizing healthcare services remains scarce, especially on their communication with ethnic-discordant healthcare providers. By invoking Street’s ecological model (2003), this research elicits foreign domestic workers’ perspectives and seeks to identify how organizational and cultural factors shape their perceptions of communication with healthcare providers. Thirty female foreign domestic workers participated in semi-structured interviews. They reported that their communication with healthcare providers was susceptible to language-related issues and perceived power distance, which were embedded within the cultural context. Additionally, foreign domestic workers’ narratives confirmed that time constraints and types of healthcare settings, within the organizational context, affected their engagement in medical consultations. These findings support that culturally- and organizationally-pertinent factors affect foreign domestic workers’ perceptions of medical consultations. Intervention strategies to improve communication between foreign domestic worker patients and healthcare providers are recommended.