Co-occurrence of chronic disease lifestyle risk factors in middle-aged and older immigrants: A cross-sectional analysis of 264,102 Australians

Abstract

BackgroundThe way in which lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease co-occur among people with different cultural backgrounds is largely unknown. MethodsThis study investigated chronic disease risk among immigrants aged ≥45years in Australia by combining common lifestyle risk factors into a weighted chronic disease risk index (CDRI). Among 64,194 immigrants and 199,908 Australian-born participants in the 45 and Up Study (2006–2009), Poisson regression was used to derive relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for five risk factors (smoking, alcohol use, overweight/obesity, physical activity, diet) by place of birth adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics. Multiple linear regression was used to determine adjusted mean differences (AMDs) in CDRI score by place of birth and years lived in Australia. ResultsImmigrants had higher RRs of smoking than Australian-born participants, lower RRs of excessive alcohol consumption and overweight/obesity, and no difference in RR for physical inactivity and insufficient fruit/vegetable intake. Participants born in the Middle East/North Africa (AMD 3.5, 95% CI 2.7, 4.3), Eastern/Central Europe (1.3, 0.8, 1.9), and Western Europe (0.5, 0.1, 0.8) had higher mean CDRI scores than Australian-born participants, while participants born in East Asia (−7.2, −7.8, −6.6), Southeast Asia (−6.6, −7.2, −6.1), Central/South Asia (−3.1, −4.0, −2.1), Sub-Saharan Africa (−1.9, −2.6, −1.2) and the United Kingdom/Ireland (−0.2, −0.5, 0.0) had lower scores. CDRI score among immigrants generally approximated that of Australian-born participants with greater years lived in Australia. ConclusionsThis study reveals differences in potential risk of chronic disease among different immigrant groups in Australia.