To explore the primary health care experiences of Indian immigrants living with chronic illnesses in Australia.

Primary health care is integral for managing health issues for people living with chronic illnesses. Despite Indian migrants being the largest overseas-born population in Australia to use primary health care services for their chronic illnesses, at this time, limited literature reports on their experiences in Australia.

A qualitative exploratory approach was adopted for this study. Through purposive sampling, 11 participants were recruited, and data was collected using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.

Three themes and six sub-themes emerged from the thematic analysis. The first theme ‘being a mix of experiences’ presented participants’ positive and negative experiences related to communication, compassion, quality of care and length of consultations. The second theme ‘facilitators to accessing primary health care services in Australia’ described the benefits of telehealth and having a common cultural background as that of the general practitioner. Meanwhile, the third theme ‘barriers to accessing primary health care services in Australia’ identified unavailability of preferred GPs and waiting times and delays for in-person appointments as barriers that hindered access to PHC services in Australia.

Primary health care experiences of Indian immigrants with chronic illnesses in Australia were a mix of positive and negative experiences, similar to that of other immigrants. Faster accessibility and compassionate services among migrants were highlighted to be needing extra attention by way of further research and acknowledging the unique diversity of individuals.

The aims of this study were to field and pilot test the Korean version of the Household Emergency Preparedness Instrument (K-HEPI) and perform psychometric testing of the instrument’s reliability and validity.

The English to Korean translation followed a symmetrical translation approach utilizing a decentered process (i.e., both the source and target languages were considered equally important) focusing on the instruments remaining loyal to the content. After translation, the K-HEPI was field tested with 30 bilingual participants who all reported that the instructions were easy to understand and the items aligned closely with the original English version. The K-HEPI was then pilot tested with 399 Korean-speaking participants in a controlled, before-after study utilizing a disaster preparedness educational intervention.

Confirmatory factor analyses supported the K-HEPI retaining the factor structure of the original English version. The K-HEPI was also found to be psychometrically comparable to the original instrument.

The K-HEPI can validly and reliably assess the disaster preparedness of Korean-speaking populations, enabling clinicians, researchers, emergency management professionals, and policymakers to gather accurate data on disaster preparedness levels in Korean communities, identify gaps in preparedness, develop targeted interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of disaster preparedness interventions over time.