Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death among women and men, with one Canadian dying every 7 minutes, and costing the healthcare system in excess of 22 billion dollars per year. For Canada's largest visible minority community, CVD related deaths are decreasing at a significantly slower pace than their European/British ancestry counterparts. South Asian ancestry Canadians experience heart disease at a significantly younger age and have a greater risk of premature death. Researchers have not been able to adequately address the reasons behind the higher prevalence for given the lack of conventional risk factors (i.e. absence of high fat diets, smoking and high rates of obesity). Based on the higher prevalence rate without the presence of conventional risk factors, and newly identified delays in emergency care when heart attack symptoms arise, evaluating how healthcare is accessed can inform if structural barriers are limiting healthcare access. This project aims to understand how one South Asian ancestry community considers, seeks, accesses, values and utilzes cardiovascular disease healthcare; and subsequently what factors shape their CVD healthcare access and uptake. A qualitative approach will be applied to conduct a Critical Ethnography whereby 5-8 cardiac healthcare providers will be interviewed regarding healthcare delivery factors; observational field notes will be collected at cardiac field sites to record how patients are responding to services and interactions with healthcare providers; and finally 30-40 interviews will be conducted with Punjabi ancestry Canadians living with CVD. Post/colonial, feminist and critical race theory will anchor the qualitative analysis to deliver academic and community based knowledge sharing projects. Policy makers, clinicians, health educators and community members will benefit from a better understanding of how CVD care is sought, accessed and experienced.