Internal migrants are the individuals who migrate between regions in one country. The number of internal migrants were estimated at 245 million in China in 2013. Results were inconsistent in the literature about the relationship between their health statuses and social integration. The main difference exists on how to measure the social integration and whether health statuses of internal migrants improve with years of residence. To complement the existing literature, this study measured social integration more comprehensively and estimated the internal migrants’ health statuses with varying years of residence, and explored the associations between the migrants’ social integration and health. We used the data from 2014 Internal Migrant Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Health and Family Planning in ZhongShan, China. Health status was measured from four aspects: self-reported health, subjective well-being, perception of stress, mental health. We measured social integration through four dimensions: economy, social communication, acculturation, and self-identity. The analyses used multiple linear regressions to examine the associations between self-reported health, subjective well-being, and perception of stress, mental health and social integration. The analytical sample included 1,999 households of the internal migrants and 1,997 local registered households, who were permanent residents in ZhongShan. Among the internal migrants, Adults in the labor force, who were aged 25 to 44 years old, accounted for 91.2% of the internal migrant population, while 74.6% of the registered population were in that age group. Median residential time among migrants was 2.8 (1.3–6.2) years, and 20.2% of them were migrating in the same Guangdong province. Except for mental health, other health statuses among migrants had significant differences compared with local registered population, e.g. self-reported health was better, but subjective well-being was worse. However, these health measurements were improved with more years of residence. Moreover, our results show that two aspects of social integration, economic integration and self-identity, were significantly associated with health status. Subjective feeling of relative social status levels were more associated with health, which prompted the attention to social fairness and the creation of a fair and respectful culture. More interventions could be experimented, such as encouraging internal migrants to participate in community activities more actively, educating local registered residents to treat internal migrants more equally, and developing self-identity among internal migrants. Better social, economic, and cultural environment can benefit internal migrants’ health statuses.

Background: As a vulnerable population in China, migrant workers have a higher smoking rate than the general population. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a WHO-5A based comprehensive tobacco control program in workplaces aggregated with migrants.

Recently, the prevalence trend of pulmonary fungal infection (PFI) has rapidly increased. Changes in the risk factors for, distributions of underlying diseases associated with and clinical characteristics of some individual PFIs have been reported in the past decade. However, data regarding PFIs remain uncertain. This study reports the epidemiological characteristics and trends of PFIs over time in recent years. We applied an automated natural language processing (NLP) system to extract clinically relevant information from the electronic health records (EHRs) of PFI patients at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. Then, a trend analysis was performed. From January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2019, 40,504 inpatients and 219,414 outpatients with respiratory diseases were screened, in which 1368 inpatients and 1313 outpatients with PFI were identified. These patients were from throughout the country, but most patients were from southern China. Upward trends in PFIs were observed in both hospitalized patients and outpatients ( P <0.05). The stratification by age showed that the incidence of hospitalized patients aged 14–30 years exhibited the most obvious upward trend, increasing from 9.5 per 1000 patients in 2013 to 88.3 per 1000 patients in 2019. Aspergillosis (56.69%) was the most common PFI, but notably, the incidence rates of Talaromyces marneffei , which used to be considered uncommon, exhibited the most rapid increases. In younger PFI patients, the incidence and trend of PFIs have increased. Infection by previously uncommon pathogens has also gradually increased. Increased attention should be paid to young PFI patients and uncommon PFI pathogen infections.

BackgroundIn China, most of migrant workers work in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and are a vulnerable group for occupational health. Migrant workers are at increased risk of occupational health risks due to poor occupational health behaviours such as the low use of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, there is a lack of solid evidence regarding how to improve the use of PPE among migrant workers in SMEs. The current study will assess the effectiveness of a multi-pronged behavioural intervention designed to promote PPE utilization among migrant workers exposed to organic solvents in SMEs.Methods/DesignThis is a single blind, three-arm cluster randomized trial with 60 SMEs equally randomized to receive a top-down intervention (i.e. general health education and mHealth intervention provided by researchers) or a comprehensive intervention (which includes both top-down intervention and peer education) or a control condition (participants will not receive the intervention, but study measures will be obtained). Interventions will be conducted at the SMEs level for 6 months and all eligible migrant workers in these SMEs will be enrolled into the trial. The primary outcome is effective use of PPE during the last week. The secondary outcomes are occupational health knowledge and attitude and participation in occupational health check-up. Data will be collected and assessed at baseline; 3 months post baseline and the end of the intervention.DiscussionThis theory- and evidence based intervention will contribute to the limited evidence of behaviour change intervention in improving PPE utilization of migrant workers in SMEs, and provide timely evidence for the development of basic occupational health services in China and elsewhere with similar industrialization contexts.Trial registrationChiCTR-IOR-15006929. Registered on 16 August 2015.

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