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International Journal for Equity in Health
Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2011

Open Access 01-12-2011 | Research

Self-rated health, ethnicity and social position in a deprived neighbourhood in Denmark

Authors: Pernille T Andersen, Carsten K Bak, Susanne Vangsgaard, Unni Dokkedal, Pia V Larsen

Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health | Issue 1/2011

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Abstract

Background

In recent years the close connection between SES and differences in health between ethnic groups have been subject to growing interest among researchers, and some studies have found an association between ethnicity and long term illness and poor health. However, there is limited research-based knowledge about health and illness in ethnic groups in Denmark and about ethnic Danes living in deprived neighbourhoods. The purpose of this study is to investigate associations between self-rated health and ethnicity and social position in a deprived neighbourhood in Denmark in which a relatively largely proportion of the residents are immigrants.

Methods

This study investigates the association between self-rated health used as dependent variable and ethnicity and social position (defined as index for life resources) as the independent variables. The analyses are based on data collected in a survey in a geographically bounded and social deprived neighbourhood, Korskaerparken, located in the municipality of Fredericia in Denmark. The sample consisted of 31% of the residents in Korskaerparken and of these 29% have an ethnic background other than Danish.
The analyses were conducted using logistic regression adjusting for confounding variables.

Results

This study indicates no significant association between ethnicity and having poor/very poor self-rated health.
On the other hand the study confirms that a strong and significant association between the number of residents' life resources and their self-rated health does indeed exist. The results clearly suggest that the more life resources an individual has, the lower is the risk of that individual reporting poor health.

Conclusion

The results show a strong association between the residents' number of life resources and their self-rated health. In this study, we were not able to identify any association between ethnicity and self-rated health, i.e. our results suggest that ethnicity does not constitute an explanation to differences in self- rated health.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Self-rated health, ethnicity and social position in a deprived neighbourhood in Denmark
Authors
Pernille T Andersen
Carsten K Bak
Susanne Vangsgaard
Unni Dokkedal
Pia V Larsen
Publication date
01-12-2011
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
International Journal for Equity in Health / Issue 1/2011
Electronic ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-10-5

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