Self-rated health of South Asians in Hong Kong: A pilot study

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) is recognized as a global measure of general health status. In Hong Kong, health conditions of the South Asians have never received much attention. This absence of information on health status of the South Asians limits the knowledge about the burden of poor health of the minority groups. Objectives: The aims of the current study were to examine the SRH of the South Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and its relationship with their socio-demographic status. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire to obtain information on SRH, number of physical illnesses, health behaviors including smoking and alcohol consumption, and demographic variables. A total of 125 South Asians completed the questionnaires via face-to-face interviews in autumn 2009. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association of SRH and respondents’ socio-demographic status and physical health conditions. Results: Of the 125 respondents, 19 were born in Hong Kong and the remaining 106 were non-Hong Kong-Born. Housing type and presence/absence of physical illnesses were discovered to be significant predictors of good SRH in both logistic regression models for all respondents and the non-HK-Born. Gender was also a predictor of SRH in the non-HK-Born model despite its statistical insignificance.