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International Journal of Public Health
Published in: International Journal of Public Health 5/2010

01-10-2010 | Original Article

The self-reported health of legal and illegal/irregular immigrants in the Czech Republic

Authors: Hynek Pikhart, Dusan Drbohlav, Dagmar Dzurova

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 5/2010

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Abstract

Objectives

To test whether immigrants with illegal/irregular status have higher odds of poor self-rated health (SRH) than immigrants with legal status, and whether different demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors affect SRH among legal and illegal/irregular immigrants.

Methods

Analysis is based on data from two questionnaire surveys of 285 Post-Soviet and Vietnamese immigrants (126 legal and 159 illegal/irregular) living and working in the Czech Republic, which were conducted between 2003 and 2006. The risk of poor SRH was estimated by ordered polytomous regression, the dependent variable was SRH, and selected demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial characteristics entered the analysis as explanatory variables.

Results

Odds of poor SRH among illegal immigrants were not statistically significantly higher than among legal migrants in fully adjusted analysis. Females and older immigrants had poorer SRH. Satisfaction with work, and, partly, with housing were found to have a significant role. Educational level and ‘social communication’ variables did not have an important role in predicting SRH.

Conclusions

Inequalities in SRH among legal and illegal immigrants were largely explained by socioeconomic and psychosocial factors in this study. These results should stimulate further research activities that might improve health policy and planning related to immigrants’ health in this and other countries in Europe.
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Metadata
Title
The self-reported health of legal and illegal/irregular immigrants in the Czech Republic
Authors
Hynek Pikhart
Dusan Drbohlav
Dagmar Dzurova
Publication date
01-10-2010
Publisher
SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel
Published in
International Journal of Public Health / Issue 5/2010
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-010-0156-1

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