A NEW report indicates that over half of immigrants to Ireland have never accessed the Irish health service and just under half have never been to a general practitioner (GP). The health survey, produced last week by Pfizer Health in Ireland, has compiled statistics for Ireland’s non-Irish national population and offers a remarkable comparison with the health of Irish natives, although the lower age profile of immigrants would factor into this.
Dave Gallagher of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which sponsors the survey, said the non-Irish national respondents were not as concerned about their health as the long-term Irish. “The non-nationals’ first concern is their finances, money and job security,” he noted. “But they are more inclined to make changes for the benefit of their health.”
The report found that non-Irish nationals enjoy a very high standard of health and rate their own health even higher than the Irish (8.7 out of 10 on average). They consider themselves to be very healthy with 98 per cent agreeing or strongly agreeing with this idea. Some 84 per cent said they would be prepared to make changes in their life to become healthier, 74 per cent said they would like more information about conditions that they could be at risk of, and 74 per cent said they would like more health information generally.
When it comes to taking proactive steps towards becoming healthier the immigrant communities came out tops. “The non-Irish nationals are significantly more likely to try to stop smoking with 18 per cent saying they would do so. It would appear the non-Irish nationals are singularly healthy with just 15 per cent of them suffering from any of the listed conditions. The age profile of this group factors into this and the non-Irish nationals are more anxious to learn about health generally and health risks in particular than the Irish.”
