Tai Dam health care practices: Asian refugee women in Iowa

This study discusses several aspects of health care utilization and health care practices for a group of Tai Dam refugee women who today are living in central Iowa. Several important variables examined in this discussion include: ideas about illness etiology, choice and use of health care providers, birth control practices, and the use of preventive health care in the form of prenatal health care visits. Salient findings include: Tai Dam belief that the majority of illnesses are caused by temperature and weather changes or bad food and water, or that illnesses are caused by the supernatural. Two-thirds of the women do not use and have never used any form of birth control. Although the average Tai Dam woman had been living in the U.S. for seven years at the time of the study, communications with physicians and understanding of written medicine instructions is difficult for many due to language problems. One-quarter of the women are not covered by medical insurance of any kind.