Examining the Differences in Health Service Utilisation between Immigrants and Non-Immigrants in Australia

Santosh Jatrana, Deakin University Australia

Using data from wave 9 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and Negative-binomial regression models, this study examined whether there were any differences in the visits to general practitioner (GP), among Foreign-Born (FB) from English Speaking Countries (ESC) (1,219) and non-English Speaking Countries (NESC) (1,456 ) relative to Native-Born (NB) Australians (10,618). After adjusting for predisposing, enabling, and need factors, both FB from ESC and NESC had similar number of GP visits as those of the NB people. We also found both FB from ESC NESC had relatively fewer number of GP visits while their duration of residence (DoR) was less than 10 years and after 10 or more years of DoR they had similar levels of GP visits as those of the NB people. Differences in health care utilisation between FB and NB depends upon duration of residence in Australia.