Admission rates for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), and the use of invasive cardiovascular procedures, separation mode and length of stay (LOS) were compared between Australians from non-English speaking background (NESB; n=8627) and English speaking background (ESB; n=13162) aged 20 years and over admitted to Victorian urban public hospitals. The study covered the period from 1993 to 1998. It was found that, compared with their ESB counterparts, the incidence of admission for acute myocardial infarction was significantly higher for NESB men and women before and after controlling for confounding factors. The age-adjusted ratios for NESB women compared with their ESB counterparts ranged from 1.23 to 1.89 for cardiac catheterisation, from 0.23 to 0.27 for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), and from 1.04 to 1.80 for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Procedure rates were comparable in men for cardiac catheterisation and CABG but higher for PTA rates in NESB men (OR: 1.29,95%Cl: 1.11-1.50) than their ESB counterparts. Both NESB men (β=0.04, 95%Cl:0.01-0.07) and women (β=0.03, 95%Cl:0.02-0.08) experienced significantly longer hospital stays than their ESB counterparts. These findings indicate there may be systematic differences in patients' treatment and service utilisation in Victorian public hospitals. The extent to which physicians' bias and patients' choice could explain these differences requires further investigation.

Non-english speaking background Physician-patient relations Invasive procedures language barriers Length of stay Ethnicity Cross-cultural comparison Ischaemic heart disease

Communication Barriers hospitalization Myocardial Infarction Australia heart infarction transluminal coronary angioplasty human communication disorder middle aged statistics Ethnic Groups health service ethnic group Aged Victoria length of stay Humans Hospital Mortality male Emigrants and Immigrants female health services Article coronary artery bypass graft adult migration Utilization Review Coronary Artery Bypass Angioplasty, Transluminal, Percutaneous Coronary mortality