Health Care for Muslim Women in the USA, Post Conference News Brief

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Mar 2005 - 9:00 PDT

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A conference titled, "Patient-centered Health Care for Muslim Women in the United States," the first of its kind in North America, was held on March 4 and 5, 2005 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This event was the first in a series of activities designed to identify and overcome patient, provider and health services related factors that are barriers to the provision of high quality, culturally appropriate, patient-centered care for Muslim women. Participation was not limited to any professional, racial or ethnic group. More than 200 participants from across the country attended the conference.

The conference was sponsored by the Department of Family Medicine of the UIC College of Medicine and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, United States Department of Health and Human Services. This collaborative project was supported by several UIC Colleges and Centers including the National Center of Excellence in Women's Health; Center for Research on Women and Gender; School of Public Health; College of Nursing; and, the Great Cities Institute. The project also was supported by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Society for Teachers of Family Medicine.

Proceedings began with a welcome address by Dr. Patrick Tranmer, Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Head, Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago. He stressed the importance of addressing health care needs of diverse populations as a core principle for all health providers and particularly family physicians.

Dr. Memoona Hasnain, Director of Research, Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, principal investigator and conference chair, presented the conference overview, describing the background and rationale for the project. She touched upon the concepts of patient-centered care and cultural competence. Dr. Hasnain stated that the religious and cultural beliefs of Muslim women impact their health care needs and they face major barriers while seeking health care that the rest of the population, particularly health care providers, often are unaware of. The paucity of research on issues related to health care for Muslim women in the US demands further research in this area. She also emphasized the importance of keeping in mind that Muslims in America are a diverse group and said that in addition to the African Americans who are indigenous to this country, immigrant Muslims come from over 150 countries and it would be a fallacy to lump them all together in one group.

In addition to presentations by national experts, conference highlights included the opportunity for participants to work in small groups to discuss barriers to culturally appropriate patient-centered health care for Muslim women and develop a research, action and best practice agenda for future work; as well as to interact with a panel of Muslim women clients who discussed their health experiences and concerns. Throughout the conference, participants actively engaged in discussions and voiced strong support for additional conferences on this topic on an ongoing basis.

Plenary presentations included a variety of topics:

Dr. Asma Barlas, Professor, Department of Politics at Ithaca College, New York, and author of "Believing Women" In Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (University of Texas Press, 2002) gave the keynote address, "Women in Islam: Facts and Perceptions." She focused her talk on health care needs of Muslim women within the context of Islamic tenets; dispelling misconceptions about gender preferences, the young age of marriage for girls, views of the wife as her husband's sexual property, and polygamy, stating that of these issues raise practical problems for Muslim women and are bogged down in misleading stereotypes.

Dr. Rosaly Correa-de-Araujo, Senior Advisor on women's health at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, presented an interactive lecture on "Patient Centered Care: Relevance to Women's Health." Dr. Correa contextualized Muslim women's health care within the broader realm of patient-centered care and provided an overview of key research findings from national studies on minority and underserved women's health.

Dr. Fauzia W. Lodhi, Director, Palliative Care and Hospice Program, Rush University Medical Center and member of the Board of Directors of the Muslim Community Center in Chicago, gave a presentation on "Culturally Appropriate Health Care for Muslim Women." Dr. Lodhi's talk emphasized the need for health care providers to respect the customs and beliefs of patients from every religions and culture.

Dr. Nawal M. Nour, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Director, African Women's Health Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, presented "Clinical Perspective: Female Genital Cutting," a topic of great interest to clinicians. Dr. Nour emphasized that this tradition transcends all religions and geographical locations. People continue the practice of FGC due to a multitude of complex beliefs, fears and societal pressures that we may never completely comprehend. She explained that by not circumcising their daughters, parents who, believe in female genital cutting, feel they have done them a great disservice. She also stressed that providers need to continue to help victims of female genital cutting in a manner that does not make the patient feel guilty.

The presentation "Patient-Physician Communication: the Case of the Muslim Woman Patient," by Dr. Elizabeth A. Burns, Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, provided an example of a US physician who has worked successfully with Muslim women patients by closely understanding and accommodating their religious and cultural needs.

The conference concluded with a wrap-up by Dr. Memoona Hasnain who thanked all the participants for their input and reemphasized that the purpose of this line of work is to understand, and raise awareness about the health care issues faced by Muslim women in this country and design interventions to educate both providers and clients to improve outcomes.

Additional information about the conference is available at: uic.edu/depts/ci/mwhconf

UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, please visit http://www.uic.edu

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