Self-rated health and social capital in Iraqi immigrants to Sweden : The MEDIM population-based study
(2018) In Scandinavian Journal of Public Health p.194-194- Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Poor self-rated health is an estimator of quality of life and a predictor of mortality seldom studied in immigrant populations. This work aimed to study self-rated health in relation to social capital, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and comorbidity in immigrants from Iraq - one of the largest non-European immigrant group in Sweden today - and to compare it with the self-rated health of native Swedes.
DESIGN: The study was a cross-sectional population-based study conducted from 2010 to 2012 among citizens of Malmö, Sweden, aged 30-65 years and born in Iraq or Sweden. All participants underwent a health examination and answered questionnaires on self-rated health, social capital, comorbidity, lifestyle and socioeconomic... (More)
OBJECTIVES: Poor self-rated health is an estimator of quality of life and a predictor of mortality seldom studied in immigrant populations. This work aimed to study self-rated health in relation to social capital, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and comorbidity in immigrants from Iraq - one of the largest non-European immigrant group in Sweden today - and to compare it with the self-rated health of native Swedes.
DESIGN: The study was a cross-sectional population-based study conducted from 2010 to 2012 among citizens of Malmö, Sweden, aged 30-65 years and born in Iraq or Sweden. All participants underwent a health examination and answered questionnaires on self-rated health, social capital, comorbidity, lifestyle and socioeconomic status.
RESULTS: In total, 1348 Iraqis and 677 Swedes participated. Poor self-rated health was identified in 43.9% of Iraqis and 21.9% of native Swedes ( p<0.001), with the highest prevalence (55.5%) among Iraqi women. Low social capital was highly prevalent in the immigrants. Female gender showed higher odds of poor self-rated health in Iraqis than in Swedes (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.5, pinteraction=0.024), independent of other risk factors connected to social capital, socioeconomic status, lifestyle or comorbidity.
CONCLUSIONS: Although public health initiatives promoting social capital, socioeconomic status and comorbidity in immigrants are crucial, the excess risk of poor self-rated health in Iraqi women is not fully attributed to known risk factors for self-rated health, but remains to be further explored.
(Less)
- author
- Bennet, Louise LU and Lindström, Martin LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
- pages
- 203 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:28914587
- scopus:85042101363
- ISSN
- 1651-1905
- DOI
- 10.1177/1403494817730997
- project
- The MEDIM project
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 33add79d-89dd-4518-814b-c8dcc29a420f
- date added to LUP
- 2017-10-20 13:14:33
- date last changed
- 2024-08-19 07:24:41
@article{33add79d-89dd-4518-814b-c8dcc29a420f, abstract = {{<p>OBJECTIVES: Poor self-rated health is an estimator of quality of life and a predictor of mortality seldom studied in immigrant populations. This work aimed to study self-rated health in relation to social capital, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and comorbidity in immigrants from Iraq - one of the largest non-European immigrant group in Sweden today - and to compare it with the self-rated health of native Swedes.</p><p>DESIGN: The study was a cross-sectional population-based study conducted from 2010 to 2012 among citizens of Malmö, Sweden, aged 30-65 years and born in Iraq or Sweden. All participants underwent a health examination and answered questionnaires on self-rated health, social capital, comorbidity, lifestyle and socioeconomic status.</p><p>RESULTS: In total, 1348 Iraqis and 677 Swedes participated. Poor self-rated health was identified in 43.9% of Iraqis and 21.9% of native Swedes ( p<0.001), with the highest prevalence (55.5%) among Iraqi women. Low social capital was highly prevalent in the immigrants. Female gender showed higher odds of poor self-rated health in Iraqis than in Swedes (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.5, pinteraction=0.024), independent of other risk factors connected to social capital, socioeconomic status, lifestyle or comorbidity.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS: Although public health initiatives promoting social capital, socioeconomic status and comorbidity in immigrants are crucial, the excess risk of poor self-rated health in Iraqi women is not fully attributed to known risk factors for self-rated health, but remains to be further explored.</p>}}, author = {{Bennet, Louise and Lindström, Martin}}, issn = {{1651-1905}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{194--194}}, publisher = {{SAGE Publications}}, series = {{Scandinavian Journal of Public Health}}, title = {{Self-rated health and social capital in Iraqi immigrants to Sweden : The MEDIM population-based study}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494817730997}}, doi = {{10.1177/1403494817730997}}, year = {{2018}}, }