Racism and health among urban Aboriginal young people

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Yin Paradies¹  Naomi Priest¹  Paul Stewart²  Joanne Luke³ 

[1] McCaughey Centre and Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Melbourne, Australia;Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Melbourne, Australia;

关键词: Mental Health;    Aboriginal People;    Torres Strait Islander;    Housing Stability;    Torres Strait Islander People;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-568

 received in 2011-02-01, accepted in 2011-07-15,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRacism has been identified as an important determinant of health but few studies have explored associations between racism and health outcomes for Australian Aboriginal young people in urban areas.MethodsCross sectional data from participants aged 12-26 years in Wave 1 of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service's Young People's Project were included in hierarchical logistic regression models. Overall mental health, depression and general health were all considered as outcomes with self-reported racism as the exposure, adjusting for a range of relevant confounders.ResultsRacism was reported by a high proportion (52.3%) of participants in this study. Self-reported racism was significantly associated with poor overall mental health (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.25-5.70, p = 0.01) and poor general health (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.03-4.57, p = 0.04), and marginally associated with increased depression (OR 2.0; 95% CI 0.97-4.09, p = 0.06) in the multivariate models. Number of worries and number of friends were both found to be effect modifiers for the association between self-reported racism and overall mental health. Getting angry at racist remarks was found to mediate the relationship between self-reported racism and general health.ConclusionsThis study highlights the need to acknowledge and address racism as an important determinant of health and wellbeing for Aboriginal young people in urban areas of Australia.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Priest et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011