Use of specialist health care among Norwegian-born children with one immigrant parent

Abstract

Abstract Background An increasing number of children grow up with one immigrant and one native born parent. We know little about health in this group. Our aim was to compare the risk of receiving diagnoses of physical health conditions in specialist health care among Norwegian-born children with one immigrant parent compared to Norwegian background children. Methods Data from Medical Birth Registry of Norway were linked to data from the Norwegian Patient Registry (diagnoses in specialist health care), and Statistics Norway (parental country of origin, education, and household income). We estimated hazard ratios (HR) with Cox proportional hazard regressions, with Norwegian background children as reference category, adjusted for sex, birth year, parental education, and household income. Results Children with an immigrant parent had lower hazards than Norwegian background children of diagnoses of most types of infections, but higher hazards of some, including tuberculosis, and skin infections. They also had higher hazards than Norwegian background children of receiving diagnoses of obesity and other nutritional deficiencies, and skin diseases, but lower hazards for other conditions, including chronic lower respiratory disease, disease of the digestive system, and visual or hearing impairment. The hazards of diagnoses of any neurological condition, sleeping disorders and epilepsy were lower among children with an immigrant mother, but higher among those with an immigrant father. Differences between children with one immigrant parent and Norwegian background could not be explained by differences in parental education or household income. Conclusions Children of one immigrant parent do not overall use specialist health care for physical health issues more than other children. Key messages • Awareness of diagnoses given most frequently to children of one immigrant parent can help promote timely diagnoses and adequate use of services, which is important for prevention of later illness. • Barriers to health care use among children of immigrants should be further researched.