Health Status Sensed by the Adult Latin American Immigrant Population in the City of Seville, Spain

Abstract

The immigrant population in Seville has grown over the last 10 years, most of which are Latin Americans. Our aim was to describe the health status perceived in this emerging population. In 2011, a cross-sectional study was performed on a representative sample of 190 Latin American immigrants between the ages of 25 and 44 years residing in Seville (Spain). The self-sensed health status was 18 % excellent, 28 % very good, 42 % good, 11 % regular, and 1 % poor. The average number of days of satisfactory health status during the last month was 22. Statistically significant differences were found: (a) higher satisfactory perception of health in men than in women (30 vs. 9 %) and (b) higher average number of days with excellent health in people with satisfactory perception than those with an unsatisfactory perception of their health status (23 and 15, respectively). Logistic regression, educational level, number of days of good health, and doing physical exercise were the variables that best explained the satisfactory perception of health status. Most people studied have a positive self-assessment of their health status, especially men, who engage in physical activity and those who have 3 and more weeks of good health per month. Our results permit us to support, to a large extent, the theory of the “healthy immigrant”.