Abstract
BackgroundStudies have shown that perceived discrimination may be associated with impaired health. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of perceived discrimination on the basis of origin and ethnicity and measure the association with health in three population groups in Israel: non-immigrant Jews, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and Arabs.MethodsA cross sectional random telephone survey was performed in 2006 covering 1,004 Israelis aged 35-65; of these, 404 were non-immigrant Jews, 200 were immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 400 were Arabs, the final number for regression analysis was 952. Respondents were asked about their perceived experiences with discrimination in seven different areas. Quality of life, both physical and mental were measured by the Short Form 12.ResultsPerceived discrimination on the basis of origin was highest among immigrants. About 30% of immigrants and 20% of Arabs reported feeling discriminated against in areas such as education and employment. After adjusting for socioeconomic variables, discrimination was associated with poor physical health among non-immigrant Jews (OR = 0.42, CI = 0.19, 0.91) and immigrants (OR = 0.51, CI = 0.27, 0.94), but not among Arabs. Poor mental health was significantly associated with discrimination only among non-immigrant Jews (OR = 0.42, CI = 0.18, 0.96).ConclusionsPerceived discrimination seemed high in both minority populations in Israel (Arabs and immigrants) and needs to be addressed as such. However, discrimination was associated with physical health only among Jews (non-immigrants and immigrants), and not among Arabs. These results may be due to measurement artifacts or may be a true phenomenon, further research is needed to ascertain the results.
Highlights
Studies have shown that perceived discrimination may be associated with impaired health
Discrimination may be based on race/ethnicity, origin, religion, culture, social-class, age and gender: people are distinguished and treated unfavorably by others due to their belonging to a specific group [1]
Socio-demographic characteristics The study population consisted of three groups, nonimmigrant Jews (404), immigrants from the former Soviet Union (fSU) (200) and Arabs (400)
Summary
Studies have shown that perceived discrimination may be associated with impaired health. Long-term perceived discrimination can lead to the accumulation of stressors over the life course [2]. Such prolonged stress may exert an effect on health [3,4,5,6]. Studies from other countries have looked at immigrants and ethnic minorities in Western countries, such as Canada [19,20], England [12], Ireland [21], the Netherlands [9], Denmark [22], Finland [23] and New Zealand [24]
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