Tell me what you mean by "sí": perceptions of quality of prenatal care among immigrant Latina women

• Published in: Qualitative health research Vol. 11; no. 6; pp. 780 - 794
• Main Authors: Bender, D E, Harbour, C, Thorp, J, Morris, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC 01.11.2001
• Subjects: Antenatal care; Attitude to Health - ethnology; Data collection; Emigration and Immigration; Female; Health care; Health technology assessment; Hispanic Americans - psychology; Hispanic people; Humans; Immigrants; Latin American people; Noncitizens; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - ethnology; Perceptions; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care - standards; Quality; Quality of Health Care; United States; USA; Women; United States
• ISSN: 1049-7323; 1552-7557
• DOI: 10.1177/104973201129119532

Individual perceptions form the basis of many health research reports related to access, utilization, continuity, and quality. Many health care providers are not well equipped for designing studies or collecting data with immigrant populations. In this article, the authors examine issues in data collection on topics related to perceptions of quality of prenatal care among immigrant Latino populations. The conceptual model is Donabedian's framework for quality. Two instruments--a qualitative interview with photographs representing components of quality and a questionnaire--were used for data collection. Examples of narrative responses given by women in response to the photo-narrative prompts are presented and compared to shorter survey responses. The authors emphasize the importance of designing research instruments that reflect the perceptions of the research subjects rather than simply those of the investigators.