Discrimination and health: A cross-sectional study comparing Muslims with other-religious

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study is to report perceived discrimination among Muslims living in Norway and to address and compare associations between perceived discrimination and health among Muslims with an immigrant background and other-religious with an immigrant background.

Method: A representative sample of individuals with an immigrant background in Norway was used in a cross-sectional study design that included 5484 respondents aged 16 to 74 years. The respondents were sub-grouped after religious affiliation, and as immigrants and Norwegian-born. This sample is from 'The Survey on living conditions among persons with an immigrant background 2016', conducted by Statistics Norway. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between perceived discrimination and self-rated health and between perceived discrimination and mental health problems.

Results: Our findings show that Muslims with an immigrant background are more likely to report perceived discrimination than non-Muslims with an immigrant background. Perceived discrimination was associated with poor self-rated health and mental health problems among immigrant Muslims and Norwegian-born Muslims. Among other-religious with an immigrant background, perceived discrimination had an inverse relationship with mental health problems among immigrants, while an association between perceived discrimination and poor self-rated health was found among Norwegian-born.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that perceived discrimination does play a role in health among minorities with an immigrant background in Norway, regardless of religion. However, the association between perceived discrimination and poor health seems to be stronger among Muslims, especially Norwegian-born Muslims.

Keywords: Islam; Muslims; Norway; Perceived discrimination; health outcome assessments; immigrants; mental health; self-rated health; social conditions.