Everyone Has the Same Access to Healthcare? Health (In)equality in a Superdiverse City

Abstract

People experience different challenges impacting their health. Existing research shows that varying experiences of the healthcare system increases with demographic diversity, with gender, education, citizenship status, and many other factors determining outcomes. That has consequences also for peoples’ trust levels in society. Conducting a pilot of the Diversity Survey in Malmö, as a superdiverse city in Southern Sweden, allowed us to build on this existing work. The results confirmed an association between unmet healthcare needs and key demographic factors but also whether people felt at home in the city. As seen elsewhere, people are more likely to seek help when they trust the healthcare system. Despite Malmö having a very international population, when seeking healthcare information people trust Swedish government websites, healthcare professionals, and friends and family over the foreign and/or Swedish media, as well as the internet. That indicates the importance of public authorities in connecting a diverse society towards improved healthcare access.