Social determinants of health in Canada’s immigrant population: results from the National Population Health Survey

Dunn, James R.; Dyck, Isabel

doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00053-8

Cited by 328 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…New immigrants tend to be healthy, but their health status declines as their length of residence in Canada increases. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] We found that members of visible minorities who reported a longer duration in Canada also reported using health services more frequently. However, among people born in Canada, health service use was slightly less frequent among members of visible minorities than among white people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in health services utilization among ethnic populations

Quan

Fong²,

Coster³

et al. 2006

Canadian Medical Association Journal

136

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Research R acial and ethnic disparities in the use of health services and in health outcomes have been extensively studied and well documented in the United States and the United Kingdom. Studies from both countries reveal that black, Hispanic and Asian people are less likely to access health care and experience more barriers than people who are not visibly members of ethnic minorities -that is, white people.1-7 The factors underlying ethnic disparities in health service usage are complex and could include such variables as health insurance coverage, physicians' attitudes toward minority patients, language, poverty, transportation, education, familiarity with the health care delivery system, and the degree and kind of family support. 3,6-17The evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom cannot automatically be generalized to Canada, and there is a need for rigorous study of Canadian ethnic populations and their use of health services. The first reason is that much of the US and UK literature on this topic is broadly categorized into "black" and "Hispanic" populations. The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have different racial and ethnic population compositions because of historical factors. The legacy of slavery in the United States and of colonization in the United Kingdom have led to a higher proportion of persons identified as black. In contrast, Canada has many Asian people in its ethnic make-up, because in recent years a large proportion of immigrants to Canada have come from Asia (59%), with a small proportion from Central and South America and the Caribbean (11%) and Africa (8%).18 At present, the 3 largest visible minority groups in Canada are Chinese (mainly from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China), South Asian (from Asian India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) and black people.The second reason is that culture, health status and sociodemographic characteristics even in the same racial or ethnic population may differ between Canada and the United States or the United Kingdom. In recent years, Canada has selected immigrants with high education, strong technical skills and correspondingly favourable health status, with only a relatively small number of immigrants arriving as refugees; US and UK ethnic minorities may differ in those respects. The third reason is that the Canadian health system differs fundamentally from the US health system, and somewhat from the parallel public and private systems of the United Kingdom. Interpretation: : Use of health services in Canada varies considerably by ethnicity according to type of service. Although there is no evidence that members of visible minorities use general physician and specialist services less often than white people, their utilization of hospital and cancer screening services is significantly less. CMAJ 2006;174(6):787-91 Abstract

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in health services utilization among ethnic populations

Quan

Fong²,

Coster³

et al. 2006

Canadian Medical Association Journal

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…5,[30][31][32][33][34][35] There is also an increased risk of reporting poor health among immigrants with limited English-or Frenchlanguage proficiency (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.5-2.7), those facing cost-related barriers to health care (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.7-4.5), 36 low-income immigrants 32 and non-European immigrants (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.6-3.3). 31 …”

Section: Which Immigrant Populations Face the Most Significant Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence-based clinical guidelines for immigrants and refugees

Pottie¹,

Greenaway²,

Feightner³

et al. 2010

Canadian Medical Association Journal

397

333

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“…The majority of immigrant families have Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal as their initial destination (19,20). In our study, although 29.5% of the caregivers were born outside of Canada, the majority of our families had been living in Edmonton for more than three years, and an even larger portion had been living in Canada for more than three years.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%