Immigrant and native regular general practitioners in Norway. A comparative registry-based observational study

Abstract

Background: More than 10% of the population and nearly 20% of all general practitioners (GPs) in Norway have an immigrant background. There are reasons to believe that immigrant GPs have different demographic characteristic and serve different populations than native GPs.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of the lists and population subscribed to immigrant GPs in Norway and compare them with those of Norwegian-born GPs.

Methods: Immigrant GPs were defined as persons born abroad with both parents from abroad. Two national registers were linked with information about all inhabitants and GPs in Norway in 2008: the GPs Database, and the National Population Register. Logistic regression was used to study the influence of the GP's immigrant background on different characteristics.

Results: Compared to native GPs, immigrant GPs are younger, more often women, and more frequently work alone and in rural areas. GPs with immigrant background have a higher proportion of immigrant patients (OR = 3.2; 95% CI: 2.7–3.8), not only from their own culture, but also from other cultures, and this proportion increases over time. Immigrant GPs have more difficulties recruiting patients compared to their native colleagues (OR = 0.3; 95% CI: 0.3–0. 4 for having closed lists), but this difference seems to diminish over time. There are, however, substantial differences between immigrant GPs from different areas of the world.

Conclusion: The characteristics of the populations assigned to GPs with or without immigrant background are different. This should be taken into account when studying differences between immigrant and native GPs.

Keywords::

• immigrant
• family practice
• case-mix
• primary care
• Norway

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Financial resources

Grant for two months from the Norwegian Medical Association for Ali Raza in 2011. Department of Global Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Kalfarveien 31, 5018 Bergen, Norway for the linking of data.

NOTICE OF CORRECTION

The version of this article published online ahead of print on 3 Sep 2013 contained an error on page 4. The heading of table 2 was incorrect and also the sub-headings were misplaced. The error has been corrected for this version.