ӣ��Ӱ��

Topic

Exploring Virtual Gateways and Crossroads of Inadequate Access to Health Care Services Among Ethnically Diverse Older Adult Women Across British Columbia

Social Dimensions of Health

Date & location

• Thursday, December 4, 2025
• 1:00 P.M.
• Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Mariko Sakamoto, School of Nursing, ӣ��Ӱ�� (Supervisor)
• Dr. Ingrid Handlovsky, School of Nursing, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Simon Carroll, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Sepali Guruge, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Toronto Metropolitan University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Lisa Bourque Bearskin, School of Nursing, UVic

Abstract

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of ethnically diverse older adult women in British Columbia as they navigate access to both in-person and virtual health care services. While Canada's publicly funded health care system is premised on principles of universality and equity, persistent disparities remain, particularly for populations at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. Older adult women from diverse backgrounds often face compounded barriers related to ageism, sexism, racism, migration histories, socioeconomic disadvantage, and digital exclusion. These dynamics remain underexamined in Canadian scholarship, where older adults are frequently treated as a homogenous category, diverse populations are often framed monolithically, and women's unique trajectories across the life course are insufficiently acknowledged.

Guided by the interpretive lenses of intersectionality theory and feminist gerontology, this study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of twelve ethnically diverse women aged 66 to 82 residing in British Columbia. Participants represented diverse cultural, linguistic, and migration backgrounds, and held varied health statuses and caregiving histories. Through in-depth interviews, the research illuminated how the women experience, interpret, and negotiate access to health care services across structural, cultural, and technological dimensions. Five superordinate themes emerged: (1) navigating health systems while aging, (2) the weight of identity, (3) technology as a double-edged sword, (4) cultural values and wellbeing, and (5) collective wisdom and future hopes.

These themes uncover the systemic inequities that constrain access to care while revealing the creativity and resilience with which older women respond to these challenges. They show how participants’ experiences are shaped by the dynamic interplay between institutional structures, personal navigation strategies, and intersecting social identities. In doing so, the findings expand conventional understandings of access beyond questions of service availability to include recognition, relationship, and cultural validation as essential dimensions of equitable care.

This study enriches Canadian scholarship on aging, gender, ethnicity, and health care services access by centering the lived experiences of ethnically diverse older adult women; voices that remain largely underrepresented in research and policy discourse. It demonstrates the analytic strength of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) for illuminating processes of meaning-making and contributes to the development of feminist gerontological and intersectional approaches to health equity. The findings carry significant implications for practice and policy, underscoring the need for health care strategies that are culturally responsive, gender- and age-attuned, and digitally inclusive, and that recognize older women not merely as recipients of care but as active agents of knowledge and change within their communities, in British Columbia and beyond.