ArticleJournal of migration and health2025
Healthcare utilization patterns among migrant populations: Increased readmissions suggest poorer access. A population-wide retrospective cohort study.
Article in Journal of migration and health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Economic, cultural and social inequalities in potentially inappropriate medication-An Austrian perspective.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Equal access to health ensures that all citizens, regardless of socio-economic status, can achieve optimal health, leading to a more productive, equitable, and resilient society. Yet, migrant populations were frequently observed to have lower access to health. The reasons for this are not entirely clear and may include language barriers, a lack of knowledge of the healthcare system, and selective migration (a "healthy migrant" effect). Objective: To examine differences in hospital utilization and readmission rates between Austrian and non-Austrian populations using nationwide hospital claims data, with the aim of disentangling the effects of potential barriers to healthcare access. Methods: Here, we use extensive medical claims data from Austria (13 million hospital stays of approximately 4 million individuals between 2015 and 2019) to compare the healthcare utilization patterns between Austrians and non-Austrians. We looked at the differences in primary diagnoses and hospital sections of initial hospital admission across different nationalities. We hypothesize that cohorts experiencing the "healthy migrant" effect show lower readmission rates after hospitalization compared to migrant populations that are in poorer health but show lower hospitalization rates due to barriers in access. Results: We indeed find that all nationalities showed lower hospitalization rates than Austrians, except for Germans, who exhibit a similar healthcare usage to Austrians. Although around 20% of the population has a migration background, non-Austrian citizens account for only 9.4% of the hospital patients and 9.79% of hospital nights. However, results for readmission rates are much more divergent. Nationalities like Hungary, Romania, and Turkey (females) show decreased readmission rates in line with the healthy migrant effect. Patients from Russia, Serbia, and Turkey (males) show increased readmissions, suggesting that their lower hospitalization rates are more likely due to access barriers. Conclusion: Considering the surge in international migration, our findings shed light on healthcare access, usage behaviours and gender differences across patients with different nationalities, offering new insights and perspectives.
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