Is the Definition of Roma an Important Matter? The Parallel Application of Self and External Classification of Ethnicity in a Population-Based Health Interview Survey

Eszter Anna Janka, Ferenc Vincze, Róza Ádány and János Sándor
Additional contact information
Eszter Anna Janka: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, H-4032, Hungary
Ferenc Vincze: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, H-4012, Hungary
Róza Ádány: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, H-4012, Hungary
János Sándor: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, H-4012, Hungary

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: The Roma population is typified by a poor and, due to difficulties in ethnicity assessment, poorly documented health status. We aimed to compare the usefulness of self-reporting and observer-reporting in Roma classification for surveys investigating differences between Roma and non-Roma populations. Both self-reporting and observer-reporting of Roma ethnicity were applied in a population-based health interview survey. A questionnaire was completed by 1849 people aged 18–64 years; this questionnaire provided information on 52 indicators (morbidity, functionality, lifestyle, social capital, accidents, healthcare use) indicators. Multivariate logistic regression models controlling for age, sex, education and employment were used to produce indicators for differences between the self-reported Roma ( N = 124) and non-Roma ( N = 1725) populations, as well as between observer-reported Roma ( N = 179) and non-Roma populations ( N = 1670). Differences between interviewer-reported and self-reported individuals of Roma ethnicity in statistical inferences were observed for only seven indicators. The self-reporting approach was more sensitive for two indicators, and the observer-reported assessment for five indicators. Based on our results, the self-reported identity can be considered as a useful approach, and the application of observer-reporting cannot considerably increase the usefulness of a survey, because the differences between Roma and non-Roma individuals are much bigger than the differences between indicators produced by self-reported or observer-reported data on individuals of Roma ethnicity.

Keywords: Roma health; ethnicity assessment; self-reporting; observer-reporting; health interview survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/353/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/353/ (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:15:y:2018:i:2:p:353-:d:132227

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 ().