Summary Report: Health services use of newcomers to New Brunswick
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Date
2024-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training
Abstract
The province of New Brunswick (NB) has been experiencing a rate of population growth not seen in more than 40 years. Though some of this is attributable to positive inter-provincial migration, the main driver of this increase is immigration from outside Canada.
While immigrants overall tend to be healthier upon their arrival in Canada as compared to the non-immigrant population, studies show an overall decline in immigrant health status over time, often dropping to levels below that of the general population. This trend may be due in part to lower utilization of health care services by immigrant populations because of numerous barriers to access that they may experience. This pattern is of concern for both individual patient health and the potential cost to the health care system in the long term.
This study aims to understand the utilization patterns of health services among newcomers to New Brunswick – that is, recent immigrants who have been resident in NB for less than 5 years.
We compare newcomers’ health service use to that of long-term immigrants (who have been resident in NB for more than 5 years) as well as non-immigrants (individuals originally from NB as well as migrants from other provinces/territories within Canada). We identify trends, between and within various groups, in health service use over time. Specifically, we consider:
- Hospitalizations (2017-2020)
- Visits to walk-in clinics (2017-2021)
- Emergency room visits (2017-2021)
- Visits to general practitioners (2017-2021)
This information is useful for policymakers in assessing whether specific interventions might be needed to address newcomers’ health needs and mitigate the risk of deteriorating health over time.