Defining Good Health through a Culturally and Spiritually Grounded Lens: An Ethnographic Study with Rohingya Refugees

Background and Purpose: Rohingya refugees living in the United States navigate health and wellbeing through deeply rooted cultural and faith-based frameworks. Shaped by their lived experiences of displacement and statelessness, health becomes a multidimensional concept intertwined with identity, decision-making, and collective resilience. This presentation will highlight findings from qualitative community-engaged research efforts with Rohingya refugees in the U.S. to offer a community-centered understanding of how health is defined, experienced, and managed at an individual and community level through these interwoven influences. This presentation answers the following questions: 1) How do Rohingya refugees in the United States define good health, and what cultural, religious, and community-based frameworks shape this definition? 2) In what ways do faith and culture influence health-related decision-making among Rohingya refugees individually and as a community? 3) How can healthcare practitioners and community organizations better understand and respond to the health needs of Rohingya refugees through a culturally and religiously informed approach?

Methods: Participants were recruited through a Rohingya-led community center based in a Midwestern city in the United States. Through purposive sampling, 31 participants were recruited and completed in-depth interviews, each lasting between 45 minutes and two hours. Participant demographics included a diverse sample with varied immigration backgrounds and histories. Lead researcher also engaged in participant observation at a community center and in participants’ homes and surrounding neighborhoods. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo software, where thematic analysis was carried out through a combination of inductive and deductive methods.

Results: At an individual level, good health was associated with consuming healthy foods, practicing good personal hygiene, and maintaining emotional wellbeing (staying happy), which were deeply connected to Rohingya cultural and religious values. For example, Islamic rituals of cleanliness and wudu (ablution), which entails cleansing parts of the body before prayer, were described as essential to both spiritual and physical health. At the community level, participants described the important role that Rohingya culture and Islamic faith play in responding to common health concerns such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and mental health issues, which were largely influenced by their identities as stateless refugees with a longstanding history of trauma and denial of access to healthcare, and their ongoing concern for their loved ones in their country of origin. Regular prayer, strong personal and familial connections, and the use of traditional Rohingya remedies were seen as essential to maintaining health.

Conclusion/Implications: These findings demonstrate the importance of culturally and religiously informed understandings of health among Rohingya refugees and the need for healthcare providers, community service organizations, and policymakers to engage within these frameworks in their work with Rohingya communities. Our findings expand existing knowledge and practice in defining and managing health amongst stateless refugee populations and illustrate how approaching health through a culturally relevant lens improves trust, accessibility, and health outcomes among Rohingya communities in the United States.