• Flavio Ayala-Diaz, Ben Harris-Roxas, Mark Harris, Margo Barr, A Y M Alamgir Kabir, Damian P Conway, and Anurag Sharma.
• University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
• Emerg Med J. 2024 Nov 14.

BackgroundGrowing numbers of avoidable low-acuity visits to emergency departments (ED) are a major health policy concern globally and are thought to contribute to ED crowding. This study explores the differences in the utilisation of low-acuity ED visits between culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) migrants and English-speaking background (ESB) population.MethodsA study based on a cross-sectional survey of individuals aged 45 or over linked to routinely collected ED visit records in New South Wales. We employed a negative binomial regression model to compare the number of yearly low-acuity ED visits between individuals from ESB and CaLD backgrounds after adjusting for relevant health-related and sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsWe analysed 227 681 individuals with a mean age of 61, two-thirds of whom came from an ESB. Among individuals with a CaLD background, only those born in Australia had comparable rates of low-acuity ED visits as those with an ESB. In contrast, individuals with CaLD backgrounds who were born overseas were significantly less likely to make low-acuity visits to the ED compared with those from an ESB irrespective of year of arrival-for those who had migrated less than 20 years ago (relative risk (RR) 0.72, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.83) and those who migrated more than 20 years ago (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.95).ConclusionForeign-born migrants aged 45 and over from CaLD backgrounds tend to have the lowest rates of low-acuity ED visits, particularly those who migrated more recently indicating low-acuity visits by CaLD patients are unlikely to contribute to ED crowding.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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