Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 5/2013

01-05-2013 | Original Paper

How are immigrant background and gender associated with the utilisation of psychiatric care among adolescents?

Authors: Anna-Karin Ivert, Juan Merlo, Robert Svensson, Marie Torstensson Levander

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 5/2013

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate how parental country of birth and individual gender affect utilisation of psychiatric care in adolescents.

Methods

On the basis of data from the Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Scania database, the article employs logistic regression to analyse the utilisation of psychiatric care among adolescents aged 13–18 (n = 92203) who were living in the southern Swedish county of Scania in 2005.

Results

Adolescents whose parents were born in middle- or low-income countries presented lower levels of psychiatric outpatient care utilisation than those with native parents. Initially, no associations were found between the utilisation of psychiatric inpatient care and parental country of birth. Following adjustment for socio-demographic variables, it was found that adolescents with parents born in low-income countries were less likely to utilise psychiatric inpatient care. Girls presented higher levels of psychiatric care utilisation, but controls for possible interactions revealed that this was true primarily for girls with parents born in Sweden or other high-income countries.

Conclusions

The different utilisation patterns found among adolescents with different backgrounds should be taken into consideration when planning and designing psychiatric care for adolescents, and when allocating resources. Our results may indicate lower levels of mental health problems among adolescents with parents born in middle- or low-income countries implying that protective factors compensate other stressors implicated in mental health problems. On the other hand, our findings may indicate an unmet health-care need as a result of problems accessing care.
Footnotes
1
Running separate logistic regression analysis for each migrant sub-group showed that girls were more likely to utilise psychiatric care than boys in all groups except the low-income country group where no significant differences were found.
 
2
A, repeat of our analysis based on a geographical categorisation of parental country of birth resulted in similar utilisation patterns as in the initial analysis; adolescents whose parents were not from western countries proved to have lower levels of psychiatric outpatient care utilisation by comparison with adolescents with Swedish-born parents, while no conclusive associations were found between inpatient psychiatric care utilisation and parental country of birth (data not shown).
 
Literature
1.
Hagquist C (2010) Discrepant trends in mental health complaints among younger and older adolescents in Sweden: an analysis of WHO data 1985–2005. J Adolesc Health 46(3):258–264PubMedCrossRef
2.
National Board of Health and Welfare (2009) Folkhälsorapport 2009. Socialstyrelsen, Stockholm
3.
Sweeting H, Young R, West P (2009) GHQ increases among Scottish 15 year olds 1987–2006. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 44(7):579–586PubMedCrossRef
4.
Sourander A, Santalahti P, Haavisto A, Piha J, Ikäheimo K, Helenius H (2004) Have there been changes in children’s psychiatric symptoms and mental health service use? A 10-year comparison from Finland. J Am Academy Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43(9):1134–1145CrossRef
5.
West P, Sweeting H (2003) Fifteen, female and stressed: changing patterns of psychological distress over time. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 44(3):399–411PubMedCrossRef
6.
Landstedt E, Gillander Gådin K (2011) Deliberate self-harm and associated factors in 17-year-old Swedish students. Scand J Public Health 39(1):17PubMedCrossRef
7.
Jablonska B, Lindberg L, Lindblad F, Hjern A (2009) Ethnicity, socio-economic status and self-harm in Swedish youth: a national cohort study. Psychol Med 39(01):87–94PubMedCrossRef
8.
Sagatun Å, Lien L, Sogaard AJ, Bjertness E, Heyerdahl S (2008) Ethnic Norwegian and ethnic minority adolescents in Oslo, Norway: a longitudinal study comparing changes in mental health. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 43(2):87–95PubMedCrossRef
9.
Reijneveld SA, Harland P, Brugman E, Verhulst FC, Verloove-Vanhorick SP (2005) Psychosocial problems among immigrant and non-immigrant children: ethnicity plays a role in their occurrence and identification. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 14(3):145–152PubMedCrossRef
10.
Westman J, Johansson LM, Sundquist K (2006) Country of birth and hospital admission rates for mental disorders: a cohort study of 4.5 million men and women in Sweden. European Psychiatry 21(5):307–314PubMedCrossRef
11.
Leão TS, Sundquist J, Johansson LM, Johansson S, Sundquist K (2005) Incidence of mental disorders in second-generation immigrants in Sweden: a four-year cohort study. Ethn Health 10(3):243–256CrossRef
12.
Hjern A, Wicks S, Dalman C (2004) Social adversity contributes to high morbidity in psychoses in immigrants—a national cohort study in two generations of Swedish residents. Psychol Med 34(06):1025–1033PubMedCrossRef
13.
Merlo J, Ohlsson H, Lindström M, Rosvall M, Liljeberg A, Beckman A et al (2008) Fördelning av psykisk ohälsa och sjukvårdsresurser i Malmö, Region Skåne. In: Östman M (ed) Migration och psykisk ohälsa (Migration and mental ill health) Hälsa och samhälle. Malmö högskola, Malmö
14.
Westin M, Ahs A, Brand Persson K, Westerling R (2004) A large proportion of Swedish citizens refrain from seeking medical care—lack of confidence in the medical services a plausible explanation? Health Policy 68(3):333–344PubMedCrossRef
15.
16.
Oliver A, Mossialos E (2004) Equity of access to health care: outlining the foundations for action. J Epidemiol Community Health 58(8):655PubMedCrossRef
17.
Sayal K (2006) Annotation: pathways to care for children with mental health problems. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47(7):649–659PubMedCrossRef
18.
Stein SM, Christie D, Shah R, Dabney J, Wolpert M (2003) Attitudes to and knowledge of CAMHS: differences between Pakistani and white British mothers. Child and Adolesc Mental Health 8(1):29–33CrossRef
19.
Saxena S, Eliahoo J, Majeed A (2002) Socioeconomic and ethnic group differences in self-reported health status and use of health services by children and young people in England: cross sectional study. BMJ 325(7363):520PubMedCrossRef
20.
Zwaanswijk M, Verhaak PFM, Bensing JM, van der Ende J, Verhulst FC (2003) Help seeking for emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 12(4):153–161PubMedCrossRef
21.
22.
23.
24.
Cooper C, Spiers N, Livingston G, Jenkins R, Meltzer H, Brugha T et al (2012) Ethnic inequalities in the use of health services for common mental disorders in England. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. doi:10.​1007/​s00127-012-0565y
25.
Vollebergh WAM, ten Have M, Dekovic M, Oosterwegel A, Pels T, Veenstra R et al (2005) Mental health in immigrant children in the Netherlands. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 40(6):489–496PubMedCrossRef
26.
Zwirs BWC, Burger H, Schulpen TWJ, Wiznitzer M, Fedder H, Buitelaar JK (2007) Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among children of different ethnic origin. J Abnorm Child Psychol 35(4):556–566PubMedCrossRef
27.
National Board of Health and Welfare. Social rapport 2010. Socialstyrelsen, Stockholm
28.
Zwirs BWC, Burger H, Buitelaar JK, Schulpen TWJ (2006) Ethnic differences in parental detection of externalizing disorders. Eur Child AdolescPsychiatry 15(7):418CrossRef
29.
Hackett L, Hackett R (1993) Parental ideas of normal and deviant child behaviour: a comparison of two ethnic groups. Br J Psychiatry 162:353–357PubMedCrossRef
30.
Chavez LM, Shrout PE, Alegría M, Lapatin S, Canino G (2010) Ethnic differences in perceived impairment and need for care. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38:1165–1177PubMedCrossRef
31.
Zwirs BWC, Burger H, Schulpen TWJ, Buitelaar JK (2006) Different treatment thresholds in non-Western children with behavioral problems. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45(4):476–483PubMedCrossRef
32.
Beckman A, Merlo J, Lynch JW, Gerdtham UG, Lindström M, Lithman T (2004) Country of birth, socioeconomic position, and healthcare expenditure. a multilevel analysis of Malmö. Sweden. J Epidemiol Community Health 58(2):145–149CrossRef
33.
Crone MR, Bekkema N, Wiefferink CH, Reijneveld SA (2010) Professional identification of psychosocial problems among children from ethnic minority groups: room for improvement. J Pediatr 156(2):277–284PubMedCrossRef
34.
Chandra A, Minkovitz CS (2006) Stigma starts early: gender differences in teen willingness to use mental health services. J Adolesct Health 38(6):754.e1–754.e8CrossRef
Metadata
Title
How are immigrant background and gender associated with the utilisation of psychiatric care among adolescents?
Authors
Anna-Karin Ivert
Juan Merlo
Robert Svensson
Marie Torstensson Levander
Publication date
01-05-2013
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 5/2013
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0589-3

Other articles of this Issue 5/2013

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 5/2013 Go to the issue

Original Paper

Life events and difficulties and their association with antenatal distress in White and South Asian women in the UK

Original Paper

Profiling disordered eating patterns and body mass index (BMI) in the English general population

Original Paper

Ethnicity and psychiatric comorbidity in a national sample: evidence for latent comorbidity factor invariance and connections with disorder prevalence

Original Paper

Mental health treatment seeking among patients with OCD: impact of age of onset

Original Paper

Socioeconomic status and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and eating disorders

Original Paper

The prevalence and nature of gambling and problem gambling in South Korea