The health of Moluccans in the Netherlands A persistent disadvantage

The Moluccan community is one of the longest residing minority groups (since 1951) in The Netherlands with a special history. The aim of this thesis is to map overall health status and healthcare utilisation among Moluccans, both as a whole and across generations, in the Netherlands.
The findings in this thesis show that Moluccans have an overall persistent health disadvantage compared to the Dutch population. We found high all-cause mortality rates across generations and both for Moluccans with a mixed and non-mixed ethnic background. Higher mortality rates were found for liver, uterine, and cervical cancer among Moluccans. Both Moluccan men and women, are more likely to have hypertension at an early age than the Dutch population. Moluccans of the first and second generation, both men and women, have higher odds for diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases seem to occur less often among Moluccans than the Dutch population. Moluccans have a higher risk of ischemic heart disease, but a lower risk of cerebrovascular accidents and cardiac failure. Moluccans make less use of healthcare services, such as the general practitioner, outpatient medical specialist, dentist, physiotherapist and the use of paid housekeeping services than the Dutch population.
This thesis concludes that more quantitative and qualitative research is needed on, among others, the underlying explanations regarding the poor health status of Moluccans. Also, follow-up research is needed to map the health status of the youngest generations Moluccans.