A Comparison between Finnish Immigrants and Native Swedes in the Greater Stockholm Region—Social and Medical Risk Indicators of Ischemic Heart Disease

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Abstract
A random sample of 105 Finnish 35–59-year-old male immigrants in the catchment area of Huddinge hospital was drawn and 105 age- and sex-matched native Swedes living in the same area. From the Finnish 71 participated and from the Swedes, 77. Most immigrants had been residing in the region for many years. Many had grown up in medium-sized municipalities in Finland, particularly in the province of Karelia. They differed from the native Swedes with regard to many social variables. Thus, the immigrants had lower incomes, were more frequently exposed to noise at work and reported more sickness absenteeism during the year preceding the study. The immigrants had significantly more often than the native Swedes at least one conventional risk indicator of ischemic heart disease. They were also demonstrated to have abnormally low high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels significantly more frequently than native Swedes. Several of the variables studied did not differentiate the groups from one another. Thus, there was no indication of any difference in total alcohol ingestion or in type A behaviour prevalence.