BMC Public Health 2007, 7:27 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/7/27 Table 4: Odds Ratios [OR (95% CI)] for Self-Reporting Psychiatric Illness or Psychosomatic Complaints in the Study Population (simultaneous adjustment for all the independent variables, except migration-related ones): SALLS 1994–2001 Level OR (CI 95%) Self-reported psychiatric illness OR (CI 95%) Self-reported psychosomatic complaints Variable Country of birth Age Sex Marital status Social network Occupation status Housing tenure Smoking Sweden Poland Other East European countries The former Soviet Union 25–44 45–64 65–84 Women Men Married/cohabiting Single Good Poor White-collar Lower white-collar Self-employed Students Blue-collar workers Ownership Renting No Yes 1 (Reference) 2.17 (1.55–3.03) 2.17 (1.54–3.02) 1.09 (0.58–2.05) 1 (Reference) 1.13 (1.06–1.20) 1.14 (1.06–1.23) 1 (Reference) 0.56 (0.52–0.59) 1 (Reference) 1.65 (1.56–1.76) 1 (Reference) 1.48 (1.38–1.59) 1 (Reference) 1.24 (1.14–1.35) 1.09 (0.98–1.21) 1.47 (1.26–1.72) 1.21 (1.13–1.29) 1 (Reference) 1.28 (1.20–1.36) 1 (Reference) 1.32 (1.24–1.41) 1 (Reference) 2.27 (1.63–3.15) 1.44 (1.05–1.96) 1.16 (0.69–1.93) 1 (Reference) 1.04 (0.99–1.10) 0.88 (0.83–0.94) 1 (Reference) 0.54 (0.52–0.57) 1 (Reference) 1.06 (1.01–1.11) 1 (Reference) 1.04 (0.98–1.10) 1 (Reference) 1.24 (1.16–1.33) 1.37 (1.27–1.48) 1.18 (1.04–1.35) 1.52 (1.44–1.60) 1 (Reference) 1.12 (1.07–1.18) 1 (Reference) 1.23 (1.16–1.30) Abbreviations: SALLS, Swedish Annual Level of Living Survey; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval. the former Soviet Bloc in Sweden. Other variables often mentioned in the literature on the health of immigrants from or populations inhabiting the countries of the former Soviet Bloc (i.e. demographic and socioeconomic variables) influenced the self-reported mental health, but could not explain the association between the country of birth and the outcomes. This is in conformity with the small number of other stud- ies showing that country of birth has a more profound influence on mental health than age [50] and than socio- economic status [51,52] among immigrants from some East European countries and Russia in Sweden. The influence of the country of birth on the self-reported mental health differed among the three immigrant groups in the present study. Immigrants from Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe had poorer self-reported men- tal health with, in general, twofold higher odds of report- ing psychiatric illness and psychosomatic complaints than persons born in Sweden. This could not be explained by the demographic or socioeconomic variables. How- ever, immigrants from the FSU had odds of reporting psy- chiatric illness and psychosomatic complaints similar to those of the Swedish-born reference group. This finding was also supported by the analysis of the of hospital admissions due to mental disorders. The finding of higher odds for poor self-reported mental health among immigrants from Poland and other East European countries in the present study agrees with the studies of self-reports and of hospital admissions from Sweden, Britain, and the US and with other cross-sec- tional and longitudinal studies, as well as studies on war and on political refugees [39-42]. It is difficult to say whether the results depend on premigration experiences in the countries of birth which determined the health of immigrants from these countries or whether the post- migration experiences in Sweden, particularly difficulties of acculturation in the new country usually experienced by immigrants, defined the result. Probably both. How- ever, the aim of this study was not to clarify that matter and the question remains to be answered. The finding that immigrants from the FSU had similar odds of poor self-reported mental health to those of the host population does not agree with studies conducted elsewhere (the vast majority of the earlier studies have been made in the US and Israel) [9,10,38,43]. A plausible explanation for this discrepancy is that the mental health of the FSU immigrants in Sweden might differ from that of their countrymen in other countries due to different migration trends and various factors in the host countries. Moreover, many other international studies have focused on specific ethnic groups from the FSU (e.g., only Rus- Page 8 of 12 (page number not for citation purposes)