文摘
Changes in ethnic health differences in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands during the period 1995-2003 Immigrants in the Netherlands have different health problems than natives and their health is for the majority of aspects less good. The aim of the present study is to determine changes in ethnic health differences in Utrecht during the period 1995-2003. The Municipal Health Service Utrecht has performed a series of health questionnaires in the general population, from 1995 until 2003. The questionnaires contained different items on physical health, mental health, lifestyle, and social and physical environment. It is found that the health status among Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamese and Antilleans was found to be less favourable for most indicators than among native Dutch inhabitants in 2003. For the majority of the indicator variables the differences between the Dutch and the other ethnic groups remained the same from 1995 through 2003. For Turks, the differences with the Dutch increased for five indicators during this period. For Moroccans and for Surinamese/Antilleans the difference with the Dutch decreased for one indicator and two indicators respectively. The change in ethnic differences could not be explained totally by changes in socio-demographic characteristics of respondents.More research is needed to study possible explanations in order to give specific policy recommendations.