title: Nativity, duration of residence and chronic health conditions in Australia: do trends converge towards the native-born population?
abstract: Using data from waves 3, 7 and 9 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, a group-mean-centred multilevel mixed model and self-reported chronic conditions, this study contributes to the limited longitudinal evidence on the nativity health gap in Australia. We investigated whether differences exist in the reporting of any chronic condition (including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), arthritis, diabetes and respiratory disease), and in the total number of chronic conditions, between foreign-born (FB) from English speaking (ES) and non-English speaking (NES) countries and native-born (NB) Australians. We also investigated differences between these groups in the reporting of any chronic condition, and the total number of chronic conditions, by duration of residence. After adjusting for time varying and time invariant covariates, we found a significant difference by nativity status in the reporting of chronic condition, with immigrants from both ES and NES countries less likely to report a chronic condition and having fewer chronic conditions compared with the NB. Immigrants from both ES and NES countries living in Australia for less than 20 years were significantly less likely to report a chronic condition compared with the NB. However, the health of both these groups converged to that of the NB population in terms of reporting a chronic condition after 20 years of stay in Australia.
authors.affiliation: Alfred Deakin Research Institute, Deakin University, Victoria 3220, Australia. Electronic address: santosh.jatrana@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jatrana
authors.affiliation: Alfred Deakin Research Institute, Deakin University, Victoria 3220, Australia.
authors.forename: Samba Siva Rao
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Pasupuleti
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology; D001315:Australia; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000208:ethnology*; D003625:Data Collection; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Australia; Chronic conditions; Duration of residence; Longitudinal; Migrants