The aim of this paper is to ascertain the existence of differences in self-perceived health and depression between immigrants and native-born populations aged years and older living in Western and Northern European countries. We examine the effect of country of origin, length of time in the host country and citizenship on the health of adults, using data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). As the logistic regressions reveal, some immigrant groups are more likely to perceive worse self-rated health and to suffer from depression than nativeborn groups, even when demographic and socio-economic variables are taken into account. In particular, people born in Eastern Europe living in Germany, France and Sweden have the highest odds ratio of poor health with respect to natives. Nativity status, duration and citizenship clearly contribute towards explaining health differences which are shown to vary significantly across countries. Furthermore, the perception of poor health rises as the length of stay increases, although a non-linear pattern was found. Results indicate that greater efforts by policy makers are needed in order to improve the health of specific middle-aged and older groups of immigrants in Europe.
BackgroundMany governments have made commitments to examine inequalities in healthcare access based on studies assessing the association between several socio-demographic factors and late initiation or fewer prenatal examinations. This study addressed the question of whether socio-demographic determinants were significant in explaining differences in prenatal care in one administrative region of Italy, Umbria.MethodsData were obtained from the administrative source of the regional Standard Certificate of Live Births between 2005 and 2010, and were merged with Census data to include a socio-economic deprivation index. Standard and multilevel logistic regression models were used to analyze the magnitude of various individual-level maternal characteristics and socio-demographic indicators, such as nationality, employment status, education with respect to late access to the first examination, and low number of medical visits.ResultsThe study involved approximately 37,000 women. The heterogeneous effects of socio-demographic variables were documented on the prenatal care indicators analyzed. A multivariate model showed that women born outside Italy had a higher probability of making their first visit later than the 12th week of pregnancy and low numbers of prenatal medical visits; the estimated odds ratio for the analyzed indicators range from 2.25 to 3.05. Inadequate prenatal healthcare use was also observed in younger and pluriparous women and those with low education; in addition, having a job improved the use of services, possibly through transmission of information of negative consequences due to delayed or few prenatal visits. Interestingly, this study found a substantial reduction in the number of pregnant women who do not use prenatal healthcare services properly.ConclusionsThe aim of this research is to provide more accurate knowledge about the inadequate use of prenatal healthcare in Italy. Results highlight the existence of differences in healthcare use during pregnancy, especially for women from less advantaged social classes (i.e., unemployed or poorly educated). Such inequalities should be examined in all areas of public policy and public services, to ensure equal opportunity for their use.
The aim of this study was to analyse the statistical relationships among climatic variables and flowering dates for olive species (Olea europaea). Data were collected over 21 years from the study area located in the province of Perugia, central Italy. Flowering was studied through the aerobiological method and daily pollen concentrations (expressed as pollen grains/ m 3 ) were recorded. A new flowering forecasting indicator (modified chilling unit, CUm) is proposed to identify the beginning and the central phase of anthesis (maximum pollen concentration) in olive groves. Correlation and regression analyses were carried out regarding two different flowering stages and meteorological variables expressed as thermal amounts. A mean temperature variable was introduced to consider the current conditions during flowering (from the first pollen concentrations to the maximum). The best fitting model was obtained considering the maximum pollen concentration date and the modified chilling unit formula with a cut-off temperature of 12°C. The validity of this model was tested using data from 1999 to 2002 (not included in the model parameterisation). The results showed that this new climatic indicator is able to accurately forecast the timine of fiowerina for olive trees.
ObjectivesWe addressed the question of whether use of adequate prenatal care differs between foreign-born and Italian mothers and estimated the extent to which unobservable characteristics bias results.SettingThis study is on primary care and especially on adequate access to prenatal healthcare services by immigrant mothers.ParticipantsApproximately 37 000 mothers of both Italian and foreign nationality were studied. Data were obtained from the Standard Certificate of Live Birth between 2005 and 2010 in Umbria.ResultsEstimates from the bivariate probit model indicate that immigrant mothers are three times more likely to make fewer than four prenatal visits (OR=3.35) and 1.66 times more likely to make a late first visit (OR=1.66). The effect is found to be strongest for Asian women.ConclusionsStandard probit models lead to underestimation of the probability of inadequate use of prenatal care services by immigrant women, whereas bivariate probit models, which allow us to consider immigrant status as an endogenous variable, estimated ORs to be three times larger than those obtained with univariate models.
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