Hospital utilisation among people born in refugee-source countries: an analysis of hospital admissions, Victoria, 1998-2004.

Objective: To investigate whether hospital utilisation and health outcomes in Victoria differ between people born in refugee-source countries and those born in Australia.

Design And Setting: Analysis of a statewide hospital discharge dataset for the 6 financial years from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 2004. Hospital admissions of people born in eight countries for which the majority of entrants to Australia arrived as refugees were included in the analysis.

Main Outcome Measures: Age-standardised rates and rate ratios for: total hospital admissions; emergency admissions; surgical admissions; total days in hospital; discharge at own risk; hospital deaths; admissions due to infectious and parasitic diseases; and admissions due to mental and behavioural disorders.

Results: In 2003-04, compared with the Australia-born Victorian population, people born in refugee-source countries had lower rates of surgical admission (rate ratio [RR], 0.85; 95% CI, 0.81-0.88), total days in hospital (RR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.73-0.75), and admission due to mental and behavioural disorders (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.65-0.76). Over the 6-year period, rates of total days in hospital and rates of admission due to mental and behavioural disorders for people born in refugee-source countries increased towards Australian-born averages, while rates of total admissions, emergency admissions, and admissions due to infectious and parasitic diseases increased above the Australian-born averages.

Conclusions: Use of hospital services among people born in refugee-source countries is not higher than that of the Australian-born population and shows a trend towards Australian-born averages. Our findings indicate that the Refugee and Humanitarian Program does not currently place a burden on the Australian hospital system.