%0 Journal Article
%T Examining the gender, ethnicity, and age dimensions of the healthy immigrant effect: Factors in the development of equitable health policy
%A Karen M Kobayashi
%A Steven G Prus
%J International Journal for Equity in Health
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-9276-11-8
%X Globerman (1998:31), in his study on the health care utilization patterns of immigrants, concludes that "age is the strongest single determinant of health problems" regardless of immigrant status; in fact, his research suggests that immigrants and the native-born utilize health care resources in similar ways at all stages of the life course including in old age [1]. According to Globerman, a healthy immigrant effect (HIE) does not exist with regard to the use of health care services even in later life.In an attempt to interrogate this finding, Gee, Kobayashi and Prus (2004) use a population health perspective to examine the relationship between length of residence (time since immigration) and health status in mid- to later-life individuals [2]. Such a perspective recognizes that the immigrant, economic, and demographic (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, charter language ability) characteristics of individuals, rather than "medical care inputs and health behaviours" (Dunn and Dyck, 2000:2) are the most salient predictors of health status over the life course [3]. The findings from this study indicate that there are indeed differences between recent, longer-term and non-immigrants according to age on global measures of health status; specifically, there is evidence of a HIE for recent immigrants in midlife (45-64 years), but not for older adults (65+ years).Further support for the inclusion of age and other markers of inequality like gender and ethnicity as controls in studies on the HIE is found in Newbold's (2005) study on the changing health risk among immigrants [4]. Using longitudinal data from the National Population Health Survey (1994/5-2000/01), he finds that females and young adults (aged 20-34 years) have a lower risk of declining health status relative to males and other age groups, and that Blacks have an increased likelihood of transitioning from a healthy to unhealthy state than other racial groups. Such findings in the Canadian context, a developed country
%K healthy immigrant effect
%K gender
%K ethnicity
%K mid-life
%K later life
%K health care policy
%U http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/11/1/8