Canadian Journal of Public Health
Volume 99, Issue 6, 2008, Pages 505-510

Language proficiency, gender and self-reported health: An analysis of the first two waves of the longitudinal survey of immigrants to Canada (Article)

Pottie K.* , Ng E. , Spitzer D. , Mohammed A. , Glazier R.
  • a Institute of Population Health, The C.T. Lamont Centre for Primary Care Research, Department of Family Medicine and Epidemiology, Department of Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 75 Bruyere Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 5C8, Canada
  • b Health Information and Research Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • c Institute of Woman's Studies, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • d Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • e Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

Background: Most immigrants to Canada now come from Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Africa, where cultures and languages often differ significantly from the Canadian context. Subgroups of immigrants experience disparities in health. Inability to communicate in an official language in Canada may be a marker of risk for poor health due to both pre- and post-migration factors. We aimed to study the relationship between language proficiency and self-reported health. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the first two surveys of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (2001, 2003), a population-based cohort study of new immigrants to Canada. Specifically, we used logistic regression analyses to examine the relationship between self-reported health and language proficiency by sex, controlling for a range of health determinants at 6 months (wave 1) and 2 years (wave 2) after arrival. Results: After controlling for covariates (age, sex, education, region of birth, immigrant class, job satisfaction, access to health care), analysis of the wave 1 survey showed that poor proficiency in English or French is significantly related to the self-reported poor health (OR=2.0, p<0.01). And this relationship was consistent in the wave 2 survey (OR=1.9, p<0.01). We also found that this statistically significant association between poor language proficiency and self-reported health holds only for women (wave 1 survey OR=2.6, p <0.01, wave 2 survey OR=2.2, p<0.01), not for men. Conclusion: The association between poor language proficiency and poor self-reported health, and particularly its significantly greater impact on women, has implications for language training, health care and social services, and health information.

Author Keywords

Self-reported health Language proficiency Immigrants and refugees Gender

Index Keywords

education Communication Barriers educational status longitudinal study refugee human communication disorder Refugees middle aged Longitudinal Studies sex difference Aged Job Satisfaction Logistic Models language Cross-Sectional Studies Young Adult cross-sectional study Humans classification Adolescent male Canada Emigrants and Immigrants female Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics self concept Health Status Indicators Article adult migration Sex Factors statistical model Health Services Accessibility health care delivery health survey
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-58149512393&partnerID=40&md5=1b340a417c2d372991a1bf65cca7c4c3
ISSN: 00084263
Cited by: 82
Original Language: English