Self-Rated Health Status and Health Care Utilization Among Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Israeli Jewish Women

Comparisons of self-reported health status and health care utilization patterns among immigrant and non-immigrant Israeli Jewish women are presented to explore ways to overcome existing barriers to their care and to design services that will effectively promote immigrant women's health, both in Israel and elsewhere.

Abstract

A greater proportion of immigrant versus non-immigrant women reported poor perceived health status (17% vs. 4%), chronic disease (61% vs. 38%), disability (31% vs. 18%) and depressive mood symptoms (52% vs. 38%). Lower rates of immigrant women visited a gynecologist regularly (57% vs. 83%) and were satisfied with their primary care physician. Lower rates of immigrants reported discussing health promotion issues such as smoking, diet, physical activity, HRT, and calcium intake with their physician. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for designing services that will effectively promote immigrant women's health, both in Israel and elsewhere.