Ethnicity, acculturation, and self reported health. A population based study among immigrants from Poland, Turkey, and Iran in Sweden

Study objective: To analyse the association between ethnicity and poor self reported health and explore the importance of any mediators such as acculturation and discrimination.

Design: A simple random sample of immigrants from Poland (n = 840), Turkey (n = 840), and Iran (n = 480) and of Swedish born persons (n = 2250) was used in a cross sectional study in 1996. The risk of poor self reported health was estimated by applying logistic models and stepwise inclusion of the explanatory variables. The response rate was about 68% for the immigrants and 80% for the Swedes. Explanatory variables were: age, ethnicity, educational status, marital status, poor economic resources, knowledge of Swedish, and discrimination.

Main results: Among men from Iran and Turkey there was a threefold increased risk of poor self reported health than Swedes (reference) while the risk was five times higher for women. When socioeconomic status was included in the logistic model the risk decreased slightly. In an explanatory model, Iranian and Turkish women and men had a higher risk of poor health than Polish women and men (reference). The high risks of Turkish born men and women and Iranian born men for poor self reported health decreased to non-significance after the inclusion of SES and low knowledge of Swedish. The high risks of Iranian born women for poor self reported health decreased to non-significance after the inclusion of low SES, low knowledge of Swedish, and discrimination.

Conclusions: The strong association between ethnicity and poor self reported health seems to be mediated by socioeconomic status, poor acculturation, and discrimination.