Authors' objectives:

The objective of this report was to review the bibliography available in Spain in general and in Catalonia in particular, to identify health needs and describe the use of health services by the immigrant population in Catalonia.

Authors' results and conclusions: The most relevant results include the selection of 85 studies, most of which had major methodological limitations: difficulty in identifying the immigrant population, descriptive designs, lack of comparison with the autochthonous population and lack of instruments adapted to the target population.

Authors' recommendations: Despite this, the following differences were found between the immigrant population and the autochthonous population: - In general, it is a younger population, and is not initially regarded as a risk group for health. - Job precariousness and housing conditions may have a negative influence on their health. - Poor self-perceived health could be more prevalent. - They might have more somatisations or poorly-defined sympatomatology clinical manifestations wrongly defined as an expression of mental health problems, as well as a lower frequency of psychotic mental disorders. - Some groups might have a greater probability of being infected or of having had an infection before coming to Spain, since they come from areas where certain infectious diseases are more prevalent. - The incidence of tuberculosis would increase or would remain constant in some groups, whereas it would fall in the autochthonous population. - People infected with the HIV virus would have a lower survival. - Children usually have poorer dental health. - They use more frequently the public health network and emergency services. - The main difficulties in accessing certain health services would be through ignorance of the system, and fear, due to their illegal situation. - The reasons for consultation and hospitalisation are related to the typical use made by a young population, where gynaeco-obstetric care is predominant in women (births) and general medicine visits in men (digestive complaints). - Participation in preventive programmes and compliance with treatment could be less. This work made it possible to conclude that the studies conducted with an immigrant population do not provide quality information to analyse their health needs and the presence of inequalitiesy in the use of health services. A series of consensus-based variables are required on different levels that would make it possible to identify and study the immigrant population. The perspective of social and gender inequalityies in health would have to be included, as well as the perspective of immigrant groups and health professionals.

Authors' methods: Systematic review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.gencat.net/salut/depsan/units/aatrm/html/en/dir393/doc7921.ht ml

Year Published: 2004

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Agencia de Qualitat i Avaluacio Sanitries de Catalunya

Contact Address: Antoni Parada, CAHTA, Roc Boronat, 81-95 (2nd floor), 08005 Barcelona, Spain, Tel. +34 935 513 928, Fax: +34 935 517 510

Contact Name: direccio@aatrm.catsalut.net / aparada@aatrm.catsalut.net

Contact Email: direccio@aatrm.catsalut.net / aparada@aatrm.catsalut.net

Copyright: Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Research (CAHTA)