Patterns of mortality among migrants to England and Wales from the Indian subcontinent.

Abstract

Causes of deaths in immigrants to England and Wales from the Indian subcontinent were assessed by ethnic subgroup. Observed and expected deaths for 1975-7 were aggregated to calculate proportional mortality ratios.

Heterogeneity of breast cancer risk within the South Asian female population in England: a population-based case–control study of first-generation migrants

“…For example, that a higher percentage of Pakistanis (45%) compared to Indians Pakistani/Indian Muslims were the only group with a statistically significant increased risk compared to Gujarati Hindu women. Their increased risk is consistent with a study of all deaths in 1975 -77 in England and Wales, in which proportional mortality ratios were much higher in Muslims compared to Gujarati and Punjabi South Asian female immigrants (Balarajan et al, 1984). Additionally, similar associations were found in Greater Bombay in 1973 -78 where breast cancer incidence rates were highest among Parsi women, followed by Christian, Muslim and then Hindu women (Jussawalla et al, 1985).…”

“…Many Gujarati Hindu women, for example, are vegetarians, whereas the majority of Pakistani Muslim women are meat-eaters and the latter, on average, have higher parity. There is also evidence from the Indian subcontinent of variations in risk by religion (Jussawalla et al, 1985) and region (Yeole et al, 1990;Bhurgri et al, 2000;Sen et al, 2002), but, to our knowledge, only one study of mortality has explored whether such differences persist among South Asians in the UK (Balarajan et al, 1984). However, the lack of adequate information on ethnicity in cancer registration data has hampered the examination of incidence rates by ethnic group (Harding and Allen, 1996).…”

Risk factors for coronary heart disease in two similar Indian population groups, one residing in India, and the other in Sydney, Australia

“…Studies of Indians overseas have included examination of risk factors in immigrant Indians living in such diverse countries as Singapore (Hughes et al, 1998), Britain (Balarajan, 1991), South Africa (Cosnett, 1957) and USA (Anand et al, 1998). Some reports indicate that this excess of risk may not apply uniformly to people from all areas of the subcontinent, for example, the Punjab (Balarajan et al, 1984), however, even people from this region have been shown to have an excess of nonbiochemical risk factors for CHD (Williams et al, 1994). Recent studies of cardiac patients of British and Indian origin (2), and of sons of cardiac patients of Indian and North European origin (Shaukat et al, 1995) confirm these findings, and further attest to the elevation of Lp(a) in South Asians.…”

Cancer mortality in Indian and British ethnic immigrants from the Indian subcontinent to England and Wales

“…For few deaths in England and Wales (about 1%) is country of birth not recorded, and almost all of these are in fact born in the UK (Marmot et al, 1984 (Donaldson and Clayton, 1984), with no data on this malignancy in the other three published datasets; a significantly reduced risk of pancreatic cancer in males in one study (Balarajan et al, 1984) and in females in another (Marmot et al, 1984) (Balarajan et al, 1984), but with risks elsewhere either not significantly decreased, or sigifiantly incased (Donaldson and Clayton, 1984); and a significantly decreased risk of prostatic cancer in one study (Balarajan et al, 1984), with a non-significant increase in the only other study to report on this (Donaldson and Clayton, 1984).…”