原住民婦女健康服務現況與改善策略

Objectives: To investigate the cur rent conditions of health services for indigenous women as well as recommend improvement strategies for these services. Method: Using a stratified sampling technique, we mailed a self-administered questionnaire to health and social services workers who provided health care and counseling to indigenous women in plain township, mountain township and metropolitan areas. Results: A total of 548 workers were recruited in this survey and the response rate was 95.8%. For both indigenous and non-indigenous respondents, there is no significant gender difference in terms of their viewpoints on all list items of the frequencies and the importance concerning health issues for indigenous women. On the other hand, there are significant differences between indigenous and non-indigenous respondents regarding how best to emphasize indigenous women's health issues. In general, indigenous and non-indigenous respondents differ in their opinions, in that more indigenous than non-indigenous respondents perceive the importance of making the public aware of indigenous women's health. Specifically, only one item, that is, encourage indigenous tribe women's autonomy organization and integration, had no ethnic difference. Furthermore, more indigenous than nonindigenous respondents perceive that the types of health and social services for indigenous women should be improved by the government. Only one item, that is, enhance maternal and child health, shows no significant ethnic difference. Conclusion: There is more consensus viewpoints on both gender regarding health issues for indigenous women. Yet, more significant difference are found between ethnic groups in this regard. Health services in the future should be tailored to cultural appropriate as well as gender sensitive in order to better accommodate the needs of indigenous women.