Results of two surveys of immigrants and natives in Southeast Spain: health, use of services, and need for medical assistance.

• Main Authors: María José Tormo (Author), Diego Salmerón (Author), Sandra Colorado-Yohar (Author), Mónica Ballesta (Author), Sofía Dios (Author), Carmen Martínez-Fernández (Author), Domingo Pérez-Flores (Author), Vicenta García-Pérez (Author), Joaquín A Palomar (Author), Alberto M Torres (Author), Carmen Navarro (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

Objective. To compare the self-perceived health, use of health services and unmet need for health care (UNHC) among immigrants and native populations of Southeast Spain. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional study of two representative samples of 1150 immigrants, and 1303 native participants from the National Health Survey. A single database was created with specific weights for each sample, and prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated by multivariate regression. Results. Moroccans, Ecuadorians and Eastern Europeans (EE) reported poorer health than the native population (PRs [CI95%]: 2.45 [1.91-3.15]; 1.51 [1.28-1.79] and 1.44 [1.08-1.93], respectively). Immigrants made greater use of emergencies that natives (except for EE) and had lower use of medication. Moroccan showed the greatest difference in the frequency of UNHC (PR [CI95%]:12.20 [5.25 - 28.37]), mainly because of working limitations (46%). Conclusions. The health status and use of health services among immigrants differ significantly from those of natives. Results highlight the higher frequency of UNHC among immigrants, especially high in Moroccans.

Item Description

0036-3634
1606-7916
10.21149/spm.v57i1.7401