Background: The way in which lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease co-occur among people with different cultural backgrounds is largely unknown. Methods: This study investigated chronic disease risk among immigrants aged ≥ 45 years in Australia by combining common lifestyle risk factors into a weighted chronic disease risk index (CDRI). Among 64,194 immigrants and 199,908 Australian-born participants in the 45 and Up Study (2006-2009), Poisson regression was used to derive relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for five risk factors (smoking, alcohol use, overweight/obesity, physical activity, diet) by place of birth adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics. Multiple linear regression was used to determine adjusted mean differences (AMDs) in CDRI score by place of birth and years lived in Australia. Results: Immigrants had higher RRs of smoking than Australian-born participants, lower RRs of excessive alcohol consumption and overweight/obesity, and no difference in RR for physical inactivity and insufficient fruit/vegetable intake. Participants born in the Middle East/North Africa (AMD 3.5, 95% CI 2.7, 4.3), Eastern/Central Europe (1.3, 0.8, 1.9), and Western Europe (0.5, 0.1, 0.8) had higher mean CDRI scores than Australian-born participants, while participants born in East Asia (- 7.2, - 7.8, - 6.6), Southeast Asia (- 6.6, - 7.2, - 6.1), Central/South Asia (- 3.1, - 4.0, - 2.1), Sub-Saharan Africa (- 1.9, - 2.6, - 1.2) and the United Kingdom/Ireland (- 0.2, - 0.5, 0.0) had lower scores. CDRI score among immigrants generally approximated that of Australian-born participants with greater years lived in Australia. Conclusions: This study reveals differences in potential risk of chronic disease among different immigrant groups in Australia. © 2015 The Authors.

Australia Chronic disease immigrants Vegetables fruit Body mass index alcohol consumption smoking physical activity

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