Gender differences among the immigrant population attended in primary care in downtown Barcelona

Esther Esteban, Universitat de Barcelona
Olga Hladun, Institut Català de la Salut
Robert Carreras-Torres, Universitat de Barcelona

Some districts of downtown Barcelona show the highest migratory density of the city. El Raval, one of the two neighborhoods of the historical center, is home to 200,000 people, from which at least a 47.4% was born abroad. This study is focused in immigrants coming from low-rent countries attended for the first time in the Primary Care Centre Dr. Lluis Sayé-ABS Raval Nord from 2001 to 2005. The total number of patients attended was 3,132, with nearly equal gender proportions (41.8% of women). Statistically significant gender differences have been detected for demographic variables such as OMS region origin, country, age group, and years of residence in Spain. Patients have been screened for five cosmopolitan diseases: hepatitis B and C, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)infection , syphilis and tuberculosis (latent tuberculosis and active tuberculosis infection). Disease frequencies have been higher in men than in women in all cases (21.6 % in men vs 13.8% in women for Hepatitis B, 4.1% vs 2.2% for Hepatitis C, 1.8% vs 0.4% for HIV, and active tuberculosis 6% vs 5.3%) except latent tuberculosis (28.6% in women vs 27.9% in men), and syphilis (5.4% vs 3.8%). Multivariate analyses failed to associate gender as a risk variable for all these diseases except for HIV infection, from which being a woman showed a protective role (Odds Ratio 0.103, IC 0.018-0.588, p = 0.011).