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ABSTRACT
Objectives. We apply intersectionality theory to health inequalities in Canada by investigating whether South Asian-White health inequalities are conditioned by gender and immigrant status in a synergistic way.
Design. Our dataset comprised 10 cycles (2001–2013) of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Using binary logistic regression modeling, we examined South Asian-White inequalities in self-rated health, diabetes, hypertension and asthma before and after controlling for potentially explanatory factors. Models were calculated separately in subsamples of native-born women, native-born men, immigrant women and immigrant men.
Results. South Asian immigrants had higher odds of fair/poor self-rated health, diabetes and hypertension than White immigrants. Native-born South Asian men had higher odds of fair/poor self-rated health than native-born White men and native-born South Asian women had lower odds of hypertension than native-born White women. Education, household income, smoking, physical activity and body mass index did little to explain these associations. The three-way interaction between racial identity, gender and immigrant status approached statistical significance for hypertension but not for self-rated health and asthma.
Conclusion. Our findings provide modest support for the intersectionally inspired principle that combinations of identities derived from race, gender and nationality constitute sui generis categories in the manifestation of health outcomes.
Acknowledgements
Access to the master files of the Canadian Community Health Survey was facilitated by the Canadian Initiative on Social Statistics which is jointly administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Statistics Canada. The analysis was conducted in Statistics Canada’s Vancouver and Lethbridge Research Data Centres.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Gerry Veenstra 0000-0001-6917-3784
Key messages
(1) The three-way interaction between race, gender and immigrant status on hypertension approached statistical significance. In particular, South Asian immigrants were more likely than White immigrants to report hypertension but native-born South Asian women were less likely than native-born White women to do so. This supports the intersectional principle that combinations of identities derived from race, gender and nationality are sui generis categories in regards to health.
(2) South Asian immigrants had higher odds of fair/poor self-rated health, diabetes and hypertension than White immigrants and native-born South Asian men had higher odds of fair/poor self-rated health than native-born White men.