Effects of Nativity, Duration of Residence and Age at Migration on Risky Alcohol Drinking in Australia: Evidence from an Australian Longitudinal Study

Santosh Jatrana , James Cook University
Suresh Joshi, Department of Infrastructure and Transport, Government of South Australia, Adelaide
Samba Pasupuleti

We investigated the differences and changes in risky drinking behaviour among immigrants from English Speaking countries (ESC) and non-English Speaking countries (NESC) relative to Native-Born (NB) Australians, and how those differences changed with duration of residence (DoR) and age at arrival (AA). We also explored whether the association between nativity, duration of residence (DoR) and risky drinking behaviour is mediated by English language proficiency, socioeconomic factors, and health behaviour factors. We used 21 waves data from a nationally representative longitudinal dataset: Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Drinking behaviour as an outcome was dichotomized as risky drinkers (defined as those who had more than two standard alcoholic drinks on a day) and safe drinkers (combining never drinkers and respondents those who had less than or equal to two standard alcoholic drinks on a day). We found that immigrants from NESC had lower odds of risky drinking, relative to NB respondents. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the odds of risky drinking between immigrants from NES and NB respondents. There was no evidence of a significant change in these results by DoR amongst immigrant groups from either ESC or NESC. Irrespective of AA in Australia, immigrants had lower odds of risky drinking than the NB Australians. Socioeconomic status was found to be a potential mediator for the association between DoR and risky alcohol drinking. This paper challenges the commonly held assumption that migrant and longer stay in the host country is associated with a decline in health.

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 Presented in Session P2. Health, Mortality, Ageing - Aperitivo