Migration and Chronic,Non-Communicable Diseases

Migration and Chronic,Non-Communicable Diseases
Migrants moving from one area to another, or from one
country to another, ultimately “adopt” the health profile
and risk factors for disease of the local population.
This can happen at various speeds, depending on disease
entity and country of origin. Migrants who “take
along” a low risk of disease can maintain it for a long
time, depending on their lifestyle . For example, the incidence of breast cancer and colon cancer in ‘developing’ countries is lower
than in industrialized countries, and migrants benefit
from this advantage. People migrating from countries
with low mortality from coronary heart diseases (CHD)
to countries with higher CHD mortality rates initially
experience a mortality advantage. This advantage can
be short-lived, however, as in the case of South Asian
migrants to the UK.
It has frequently been observed that migrants experience a lower overall mortality than the majority population, in spite of being socio-economically disadvantaged.
This phenomenon is discussed in the Essay migrant mortality, healthy migrant effect. Initially advantageous cause-specific mortality rates of immigrants may turn into a mortality disadvantage, however, when socio-economic conditions are unfavorable and access to health care is difficult. The duration of stay in the host country plays an important role in the
modification of health status. There is substantial evidence
for this ‘acculturation’ hypothesis. For example, South Asians in the UK originating from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh show higher rates of lung cancer and breast cancer than populations on the Indian subcontinent.
In Canada, obesity among immigrants was found to increase with length of stay.