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The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on March 12, 2007
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckm008
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Evidence of divergence with duration of residence in circulatory disease mortality in migrants to Australia

Linsay Gray1, Seeromanie Harding1 and Alison Reid2

1Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council, University of Glasgow, UK
2Occupational & Environmental Epidemiology Group, School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Australia

Correspondence: Dr Linsay Gray, Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council, University of Glasgow, 4 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK, tel: +44 141 357 7540 fax: +44 141 337 2389, email: linsay{at}msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

Received June 1, 2006 , accepted January 15, 2007

Background: Very little is known about how acculturation affects health in different societal settings. Using duration of residence, this study investigates acculturation and circulatory disease mortality among migrants in Australia. Methods: Data from death records, 1998–2002, and from 2001 Census data were extracted for seven migrant groups [New Zealand; United Kingdom (UK)/Ireland; Germany; Greece; Italy; China/Singapore/Malaysia/Vietnam (East Asia); and India/Sri Lanka (South Asia)] aged 45–64 years. Poisson regression models were fitted to estimate the duration of residence effect (categorized in 5-year bands and also as having arrived 2–16, 17–31 and 32 years ago or more), adjusted for sex, 5-year age group and year of death, then additionally for occupational class and marital status (SES) on relative risks (RR) of CVD mortality. Results: Compared with the Australia-born population, CVD mortality was generally lower in each migrant group. Decreasing mortality with increasing duration of residence was observed for migrants from New Zealand (RR 0.95, 95% Confidence Interval 0.92–0.98, P < 0.01, per 5-year increase), Greece (0.90, 0.86–0.94, P < 0.01), Italy (0.94, 0.91–0.97, P < 0.01) and South Asia (0.95, 0.91–0.99, P < 0.01), mainly in older age groups. Trends remained after SES adjustment and also when broader categories of duration of residence were used. CVD mortality among migrants from the UK/Ireland appeared to converge towards those of the Australian-born. Conclusions: These results show divergence in CVD mortality compared with the Australian rate for New Zealanders, Greeks, Italians and South Asians. Sustained cardio-protective behavioural practices in the Australian setting is a potential explanation.

Keywords: Australia, circulatory disease mortality, duration of residence, Migrants


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Lower circulatory disease mortality among Australian South Asians: how do we explain the paradox?
Charles Agyemang, et al.
The European Journal of Public Health, 14 May 2007 [Full text]
Lower circulatory disease mortality among Australian South Asians
Linsay Gray, et al.
The European Journal of Public Health, 11 Jun 2007 [Full text]

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