India Home’s Executive Director, Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi, along with Dr. Swapna Dontinneni, Dr. Pratik Jain and Ms.Vani Tirumal presented a study on Attitudes to American Health Care among Elderly South Asians at the 34th Annual AAPI Convention.
AAPI or the Association of Indian Physicians, is the largest non-profit ethnic medical organization in the United States. It stands for over 60,000 practicing doctors and 20,000 students and residents of Indian origin. Every year doctors and healthcare professionals come together for an annual convention in a major American city. They meet to talk about medical advances, health policy, participate in presentations and exhibits that highlight the newest advances in caring for patients, and medical technology. This year, India Home’s Executive Director, Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi, MD, attended the convention in New York city in her capacity as a practicing geriatric psychologist. Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi, Dr. Swapna Dontinneni, MD, Dr. Pratik Jain, MD and Vani Tirumala made a presentation about Attitudes to American Health Care among Elderly South Asians using their research conducted with participants from India Home’s Sunnyside Center and Services Now for Adult Persons Center. Most of the doctors leading the 2010 study were from Brown University.
Some of the key findings were that elderly South Asians relied on non-allopathic forms of medicine such as homeopathy, Ayurveda and herbal home remedies as a first line of defense. When they used allopathic medicine it was a second choice, and very few believed that it was important to have a primary care physician.
The Poster for the study
Barriers to healthcare
Interestingly, the study* also found the barriers to healthcare were the burden of paperwork, discrimination, communication (lack of English access) and affordability. With this study, the doctors made an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge about South Asian seniors and their attitudes toward American health care.