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Views, attitudes and experiences of South Asian women concerning sexual health services in the UK: a qualitative study

Kiridaran, Vaishali; Chawla, Mehar; Bailey, Julia V; (2022) Views, attitudes and experiences of South Asian women concerning sexual health services in the UK: a qualitative study. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 10.1080/13625187.2022.2096216. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To explore the views, attitudes, and experiences of South Asian women in the UK regarding sexual health services. METHODS: We performed virtual semi-structured interviews with South Asian women 18 and over living in the UK. We explored participants' experiences of accessing sexual health services, including contraception, smear tests and sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests. We coded interview transcripts and analysed them thematically. RESULTS: From February to April 2021, we conducted 14 interviews with South Asian women between the ages of 18 and 40 living in England and Wales, from February to April 2021. We identified four overarching themes: Access to sexual health services, entry to sexual health services, quality of sexual health services and stigma associated with sexual health services. Important barriers to sexual health services include limited knowledge of local provision, stigma and shame, and concerns about confidentiality. Participants found it difficult to discuss their sexual health (with anyone) and were often being met with judgement and a lack of partnership from clinicians. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that South Asian women are uncomfortable accessing sexual health services and communicating their sexual health concerns with health care professionals. Service providers should collaborate with community-based organisations to ensure that services are discrete, confidential, and culturally appropriate.

Type: Article
Title: Views, attitudes and experiences of South Asian women concerning sexual health services in the UK: a qualitative study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/13625187.2022.2096216
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/13625187.2022.2096216
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Keywords: South Asian, United Kingdom, contraception, reproductive health, sexual health, sexual health services, sexually transmitted infections, women
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153475
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