Not enough is known about the access and utilisation of health services for South Asian migrant and refugees within Australia.
Associate Professor Zohra Lassi, from Adelaide University’s School of Public Health and Robinson Research Institute, and a multi-institutional team analysed 129 studies published from 2000 to 2025 to create an evidence gap map.
Migrants from South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka represent a significantly rising migrant population within Australia, with numbers increasing from 80,000 per year in 2015 to 120,000 per year in 2020.
“Evidence suggests the healthcare needs of South Asian migrants are different from others due to varying risk profiles, healthcare needs, vulnerabilities and cultural understanding of health and health systems,” said Associate Professor Lassi.
“Data on existing health status and what works for improving health of South Asian migrants, as a priority group in Australia, are of significant importance.
“This study highlights the need for further research evaluating the effectiveness of targeted interventions to improve access and utilisation of health services and how they impact health status and mortality.”
The findings were published in the journal BMJ Global Health.
Associate Professor Lassi said 28 per cent of studies focused on mental health conditions, 19 per cent focused on non-communicable diseases while maternal health was a focus of 13 per cent of studies.
“These domains are well evidenced compared to other areas of health including injuries and accidents, nutrition and infectious diseases,” she said.
“There is a clear lack of evidence around interventions/strategies to improve existing health status, access to health services and healthcare seeking behaviours.
“Overall, there is scarce evidence on healthcare access and utilisation, mortality and economic outcomes.
“Low health literacy, language incompetence, competing priorities, negative beliefs and past experiences, stigma, confusion in navigating the healthcare system, lack of information, interpreter unavailability and cost were commonly reported barriers in accessing healthcare services.”
The findings highlight a need to gain context-specific insights on systems-related and individual barriers to accessing health services in order to make improvements.
“This gap map provides a foundation to build on the existing evidence targeting healthcare needs of immigrants in Australia for the relevant stakeholders,” said Associate Professor Lassi.
“However, it is important to highlight that this evidence gap map depicts only what exists and provides no information on the relationship between a health condition and an outcome.
“Future research should attempt to evaluate and report any differences in their health status and healthcare needs to devise context-specific strategies.
“The findings from this gap map underscore an urgent need for increased and targeted funding to address the research gaps.
Existing health policy and funding need to better align with the existing gaps in research and capacity to confront the anticipated burden of health-related conditions.”