The doctoral dissertation in the field of Nursing Science will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Kuopio Campus.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
Imagine someone who just moved to Finland from India or St. Petersburg, healthy on arrival. Over time, their health is shaped by the new environment, different foods, long winters, sedentary lifestyle, language skills, genetic factors, and a healthcare system primarily designed for native population. Gradually, the risk of some diseases like diabetes or heart disease grows higher than that of native Finns. This story is not rare. Diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are more common among immigrants than native populations in Europe. Primary healthcare has an important role in preventing diseases and supporting healthy lifestyles. However, immigrants are less likely to use primary healthcare in the host countries. Moreover, health counseling works best when it's accessible, culturally relevant, trusted, and easy to fit into daily life. This research aims to understand the experiences of both immigrants and nurses in healthy lifestyle counseling for preventing diseases, and factors influencing healthy living after migration.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
No equality without equity! The results showed that while nurses reported giving the same health counseling to all clients, many immigrant participants had scattered information about healthy living, sometimes from unreliable sources. Also, many participants had never received counseling on healthy living from the public healthcare sector.
Both immigrants and nurses pointed to similar challenges in healthcare when talking about health counseling, including limited Finnish language skills, lack of translated materials, low awareness of available services, and cultural factors that influence food, exercise, and the use of healthcare services.
Both groups agreed that support from family, friends, peers, and communities, together with improved accessibility and availability of health promotion services, are factors that support healthier habits after migration.
Nurses reported strong competencies to work in integrated social and health services, but only a moderate level of cross-cultural competence. Therefore, more cultural training for nurses is needed in the workplace and during nursing education to help them work confidently with clients from different cultural backgrounds.
These findings highlight the need for culturally and linguistically tailored health promotion services to support more equitable, accessible, and effective primary healthcare for immigrant populations in Finland.
Finnish healthcare is primarily designed for the general Finnish population. There is a need to consider equality in health promotion and disease prevention services for every client, especially for vulnerable and high-risk groups such as immigrants.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
Improving equity in health promotion and disease prevention services for immigrants in Finnish healthcare requires moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. Health promotion services and prevention programs should be developed in collaboration with or in consultation with immigrant communities. Providing translated, easy-to-understand, and culturally appropriate health materials, along with more cultural training for nurses and community-based support initiatives, can help engage individuals early, before the onset of disease.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
This doctoral research has three studies using two different research methods. Participants were Asian and Russian immigrants and Finnish nurses.
In the first two studies, group interviews were held (qualitative research method): eight group interviews with 46 immigrants from Asia and Russia, and four group interviews with 23 nurses. Participants talked openly about their experiences with the healthy life counseling service and what makes it easier or harder for immigrants to live a healthy life after moving to Finland.
In the third study, a survey was conducted among nurses in Finland, with 1,232 respondents, asking about their competencies in integrated social and health services, including cultural competence for working with diverse populations.
This research was conducted in collaboration with two projects: the Stop Diabetes project, jointly implemented by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the University of Eastern Finland, and the Competent Workforce for the Future project at THL. Gathering the data was no small task; organizing group interviews brought real challenges. Interviews were held in multiple cities across Finland and conducted in several languages (English, Persian, Russian, Finnish).
The doctoral dissertation of Maliheh Nekouei Marvi Langari, MSc, RN, entitled Health promotion practice for preventing noncommunicable diseases among immigrants in Finnish primary healthcare: ”One size does not fit all”, will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The Opponent in the public examination will be Docent Tarja Kinnunen of Tampere University, and the Custos will be Professor Emerita Hannele Turunen of the University of Eastern Finland. The public examination will be held in English.
For further information, please contact:
Maliheh Nekouei Marvi Langari, MSc, RN, [email protected]
