Mexican migrant women are the largest and fastest growing migrant group in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Eva Moya, PhD, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas at El Paso, was awarded a $40,000 grant by PIMSA (Programa de Investigación en Migración y Salud) from the Health Initiative of the Americas (HIA) at the University of California, Berkeley, to study the sexual and reproductive health needs of migrant women. The grant will help Moya identify strategies and approaches to improve access to services and to examine the influences on health-seeking behaviors of migrant women.
Moya’s 12-month study is titled, “The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Mexican Migrant Women in Ciudad Juárez, Guadalajara, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.”
The results of this study is expected to help shape public policy to improve sexual and reproductive health access and address the social determinants that influence migrant women’s health-seeking behaviors.
Moya will partner with academic and community institutions that include the Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro de Educación y Atención en Salud y Sexualidad, Alianza de Colaboraciones Fronterizas, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Consulado Mexicano en El Paso, FEMAP Hospital de la Familia and the City of El Paso’s Public Health Department.
Starting March 1, research assistants will conduct in-depth interviews with 90 Mexican migrant women and 45 key informants who are experts in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, to obtain information in four critical areas:
- to document current unmet women’s sexual and reproductive health needs,
- to describe the level of satisfaction of migrant women with their reproductive health services,
- to identify the availability of sexual and reproductive health programs, and
- to explore the positive and negative effects of migration on sexual and reproductive health.
While preparing for the study, Moya has already found that migrant populations in Guadalajara, Juárez and El Paso share common characteristics such as poverty, health disparities and deficits of public services, day care centers, health services, hospitals, schools and public spaces. As a result, migrant and indigenous women have a more difficult time accessing sexual and reproductive health services, as well as getting an early diagnosis of an illness and appropriate treatment.
UTEP researcher studies TB stigma [posted Dec., 31, 2010]
Eva Moya, Ph.D., an assistant professor of social work at The University of Texas at El Paso College of Health Sciences, has conducted research to combat the stigma associated with TB. Her study found that stigma adversely influences the way TB-infected people interact with family, health care workers and the public. The stigma prevents them from seeking proper care and diagnosis. Her study is titled “Tuberculosis and TB Related Stigma: Impacts on Health-Seeking Behaviors and Access in Ciudad Juárez, México and El Paso, Texas.”
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