Does Culture affect One's View of Health Informatics? A Study of the Vietnamese Migrants in Australia

Health informatics is playing an increasingly important role in health care. Migrants have been introduced to certain aspects of health informatics directly or indirectly by health authorities, health care services and various migrant communities. However, for some Vietnamese migrants, health informatics is still an unfamiliar subject. This has, therefore, affected their perception about accessing health care services. The objectives of the study are to explore the meaning of health informatics to Vietnamese migrants in Australia, how their culture affects their attitudes towards health informatics and intercultural problems relating to health informatics. The study also investigates the advantages and disadvantages of health informatics in health care services in the eyes of this migrant group. A qualitative study was conducted to find out how health informatics is perceived by Vietnamese migrants. Ten Vietnamese migrants of different gender, age groups, professions and length of stay in Australia participated in this study. The study revealed that the participants’ awareness of health informatics was influenced by factors such as family support, information technology (IT) literacy and the Vietnamese community.