Abstract
BackgroundEnlargement of the European Union has caused worries about the possibility of increased migration from its new members, the former Soviet countries, and consequently increased demands on the health care systems of the host countries. This study investigated whether or not earlier immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc have poorer self-reported mental health, measured as self-reported psychiatric illness and psychosomatic complaints, than the host population in Sweden. It also examined the particular factors which might determine the self-reported mental health of these immigrants.MethodsThe cross-sectional national sample included 25–84-year-old Swedish-born persons (n = 35,459) and immigrants from Poland (n = 161), other East European countries (n = 164), and the former Soviet Union (n = 60) who arrived in Sweden after 1944 and were interviewed during 1994–2001. Unconditional multivariate logistic regression was used in the analyses.ResultsThe findings indicated that the country of birth had a profound influence on self-reported mental health. Polish and other East European immigrants in general had a twofold higher odds ratio of reporting psychiatric illness and psychosomatic complaints, which fact could not be explained by adjustments for the demographic and socioeconomic variables. However, immigrants from the former Soviet Union had odds similar to those of the Swedish-born reference group. Adjustments for migration-related variables (language spoken at home and years in Sweden) changed the association between the country of birth and the outcomes only to a limited extent.ConclusionSince poor mental health may hinder acculturation, the mental health of immigrants from Poland and other East European countries should be acknowledged, particularly with the expansion of the European Union and inclusion of nine former Soviet Bloc countries by 2007.
Highlights
Enlargement of the European Union has caused worries about the possibility of increased migration from its new members, the former Soviet countries, and increased demands on the health care systems of the host countries
It is noteworthy that the year of immigration to Sweden reflected the occurrence of major events in the countries of birth of these immigrants (Table 1)
The odds of reporting psychiatric illness and/or psychosomatic complaints varied in different categories of the independent variables
Summary
Enlargement of the European Union has caused worries about the possibility of increased migration from its new members, the former Soviet countries, and increased demands on the health care systems of the host countries. This study investigated whether or not earlier immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc have poorer self-reported mental health, measured as self-reported psychiatric illness and psychosomatic complaints, than the host population in Sweden. The isolation from the West by half a century of war and communist rule, the Iron Curtain, and the forced inclusion in the Soviet Bloc with the compulsory creation of the "Soviet-style regimes" [2] have all had a profound influence on the economy, social fabric, and health of the population in these countries and, diminishing, the consequences are still visible The former Soviet Bloc countries are worse off economically and the health rates there are lower than in the Western Europe [3].
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