Abstract
BackgroundRacism has been identified as an important determinant of health but few studies have explored associations between racism and health outcomes for Australian Aboriginal young people in urban areas.MethodsCross sectional data from participants aged 12-26 years in Wave 1 of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service's Young People's Project were included in hierarchical logistic regression models. Overall mental health, depression and general health were all considered as outcomes with self-reported racism as the exposure, adjusting for a range of relevant confounders.ResultsRacism was reported by a high proportion (52.3%) of participants in this study. Self-reported racism was significantly associated with poor overall mental health (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.25-5.70, p = 0.01) and poor general health (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.03-4.57, p = 0.04), and marginally associated with increased depression (OR 2.0; 95% CI 0.97-4.09, p = 0.06) in the multivariate models. Number of worries and number of friends were both found to be effect modifiers for the association between self-reported racism and overall mental health. Getting angry at racist remarks was found to mediate the relationship between self-reported racism and general health.ConclusionsThis study highlights the need to acknowledge and address racism as an important determinant of health and wellbeing for Aboriginal young people in urban areas of Australia.
Highlights
Racism has been identified as an important determinant of health but few studies have explored associations between racism and health outcomes for Australian Aboriginal young people in urban areas
This study aimed to explore associations between self-reported racism and health outcomes for Aboriginal young people living in Melbourne, Victoria
Study setting and design The Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) Young People’s Project (YPP) was a study conducted in Melbourne, Australia with Wave 1 in 1997/8 and Wave 2 in 2001
Summary
Racism has been identified as an important determinant of health but few studies have explored associations between racism and health outcomes for Australian Aboriginal young people in urban areas. Throughout the world, there is increasingly recognition that racism is an important determinant of health for indigenous populations and other minority groups [1,2]. International studies are showing strong associations between self-reported racism and poor adult health outcomes across a range of minority groups in developed countries, after adjusting for confounders and within longitudinal and cross sectional studies [2,10,11]. Systematic reviews in the area identify links between self-reported racism and poor mental health (including depression, anxiety, psychological distress); poor physical health (including hypertension, cardiovascular reactivity, chronic health conditions); and increased substance use [2,10,11]
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