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“I didn’t have to prove to anybody that I was a good candidate”: a case study framing international bariatric tourism by Canadians as circumvention tourism

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, July 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (86th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (81st percentile)

Mentioned by

blogs
1 blog
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12 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

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8 Dimensions

Readers on

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41 Mendeley
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Title
“I didn’t have to prove to anybody that I was a good candidate”: a case study framing international bariatric tourism by Canadians as circumvention tourism
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, July 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12913-018-3385-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Carly Jackson, Jeremy Snyder, Valorie A. Crooks, M. Ruth Lavergne

Abstract

Medical tourism is a practice where patients travel internationally to purchase medical services. Medical tourists travel abroad for reasons including costly care, long wait times for care, and limited availability of desired procedures stemming from legal and/or regulatory restrictions. This paper examines bariatric (weight loss) surgery obtained abroad by Canadians through the lens of 'circumvention tourism' - typically applied to cases of circumvention of legal barriers but here applied to regulatory circumvention. Despite bariatric surgery being available domestically through public funding, many Canadians travel abroad to obtain these surgeries in order to circumvent barriers restricting access to this care. Little, however, is known about why these barriers push some patients to obtain these surgeries abroad and the effects of this circumvention. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 20 former Canadian bariatric tourists between February and May of 2016. Interview questions probed patients' motivations for seeking care abroad, as well as experiences with attempting to obtain care domestically and internationally. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then thematically analyzed. Three key barriers to access were identified: (1) structural barriers resulting in limited locally available options; (2) strict body mass index cut-off points to qualify for publicly-funded surgery; and (3) the extended wait-time and level of commitment required of the mandatory pre-operative program in Canada. It was not uncommon for participants to experience a combination, if not all, of these barriers. Collectively, these barriers restricting domestic access to bariatric care in Canada may leave Canadian patients with a sense that their health care system is not adequately addressing their specific health care needs. In circumventing these barriers, patients may feel empowered in their health care opportunities; however, significant concerns are raised when patients bypass protections built into the health system. Given the practical limitations of a publicly funded health care system, these barriers to care are likely to persist. Health professionals and policy makers in Canada should consider these barriers in the future when examining the implications medical tourism for bariatric surgery holds for Canadians.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 41 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 41 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 6 15%
Student > Bachelor 4 10%
Professor 3 7%
Student > Master 3 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 2 5%
Other 6 15%
Unknown 17 41%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 4 10%
Social Sciences 3 7%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 5%
Business, Management and Accounting 2 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 5%
Other 6 15%
Unknown 22 54%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 July 2018.
All research outputs
#2,346,453
of 25,159,758 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#918
of 8,539 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#45,770
of 334,935 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#42
of 216 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,159,758 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,539 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 334,935 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 216 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.