Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health
Volume 17, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 46-50

The association between subjective and clinical indicators of health in prospective Vietnamese migrants (Article)

Watkins R.E.* , Plant A.J. , Sang D. , O'Rourke T.F. , Eltom A.A. , Streeton J. , Gushulak B.
  • a Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Australia, Health Research Campus, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
  • b Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • c Department of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia
  • d International Organization for Migration
  • e International Organization for Migration
  • f [Affiliation not available]
  • g Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Canada

Abstract

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1669 prospective Vietnamese migrants who had applied to migrate to Australia to describe the association between self-reported health status and several commonly used clinical indicators of health among prospective Vietnamese migrants. Participants were recruited from the International Organization for Migration's standardised medical screening program.' We found that clinical indicators of health are related to self-reported health status among prospective Vietnamese migrants. Self-reported health status, which was assessed using a modified version of the Short Form-36 health survey, was significantly associated with clinical indicators of health, including the number of body system abnormalities identified during medical screening, evidence of tuberculosis on chest radiograph, and self-reported weight loss over the previous six months. These findings support the validity of self-reported health status assessment among prospective migrants, although the assessment of subjective indicators of health during compulsory medical screening may be limited by reporting bias.

Author Keywords

Health status Vietnamese Self-report migrant Assessment

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-22244473944&doi=10.1177%2f101053950501700111&partnerID=40&md5=bf61de153514d68623fc4cd6d967dca6
DOI: 10.1177/101053950501700111
ISSN: 10105395
Cited by: 3
Original Language: English