Comparison of Health Status and Health Care Services Utilization between Migrants and Natives of the Same Ethnic Origin—The Case of Hong Kong

Su Liu, Catherine X. J. Hu and Selene Mak
Additional contact information
Su Liu: JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong
Catherine X. J. Hu: JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong
Selene Mak: JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Based on the 2009 Thematic Household Survey in Hong Kong, this study compared health status and utilization of health care services in Hong Kong between migrants from Mainland China and natives. Overall, Mainland migrants reported lower socioeconomic conditions, worse health status, and less health care services utilization than the natives. After controlling for socio-demographic factors, we found that the migrants were 1.2 times more likely to report fair or poor health and 0.78 times less likely to report having a usual source of care, compared with the natives. Mainland migrants also had fewer physician visits and relied more on the public sector. Within the migrant group, those who had language advantage had more visits, and the recent arrivals who stayed in Hong Kong for three years or less had fewer visits and were far less likely to have a usual source of care. The findings underscore migration as an important social determinant of health in Hong Kong. A combination of targeted social and health policies is needed to help Mainland migrants better integrate into society and to improve their access to care. Programs should be tailored to address varying needs from different subgroups among migrants.

Keywords: migrants; primary care; utilization; disparity; social determinant of health; Hong Kong; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/2/606/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/2/606/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:2:p:606-622:d:23327

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().