The basic principles of migration health: Population mobility and gaps in disease prevalence

Abstract

Currently, migrants and other mobile individuals, such as migrant workers and asylum seekers, are an expanding global population of growing social, demographic and political importance. Disparities often exist between a migrant population's place of origin and its destination, particularly with relation to health determinants. The effects of those disparities can be observed at both individual and population levels. Migration across health and disease disparities influences the epidemiology of certain diseases globally and in nations receiving migrants. While specific disease-based outcomes may vary between migrant group and location, general epidemiological principles may be applied to any situation where numbers of individuals move between differences in disease prevalence. Traditionally, migration health activities have been designed for national application and lack an integrated international perspective. Present and future health challenges related to migration may be more effectively addressed through collaborative global undertakings. This paper reviews the epidemiological relationships resulting from health disparities bridged by migration and describes the growing role of migration and population mobility in global disease epidemiology. The implications for national and international health policy and program planning are presented.

The self-reported health of legal and illegal/irregular immigrants in the Czech Republic

“…Doing such research does seem to make sense (Ronellenfitsch and Razum 2004;Chandola and Jenkinson 2000). Among others, Gushulak and MacPherson (2006) have argued that the dynamics of migration movements have been evolving so quickly that they have created new challenges for existing health policies and programmes. Gaining some knowledge about the low SRH of legal and illegal immigrants and the factors that lie behind this could form one of probably many other useful bases for developing and improving health policy and planning.…”

Ubiquitous burden: the contribution of migration to AIDS and Tuberculosis mortality in rural South Africa

“…Migration and health hold a complex relationship (Norman et al, 2005; Gushulak and MacPherson, 2006). The direction and impact of the relationship depend on the type of migration, the health measure and the setting.…”

“…The direction and impact of the relationship depend on the type of migration, the health measure and the setting. Migration between settings with different disease burdens can change the health profiles of migrants, host communities and origin communities (Gushulak and MacPherson, 2006). If healthier people migrate, over time this will lower the overall health status at origin, whereas at the destination health effects largely reflect local disease burden.…”

Dealing with emigration in cohort studies: follow-up of mortality and cancer incidence among Norwegians born between 1967 and 1976

“…Ignoring emigration events, which would be the only option if migration data were lacking. This scenario is similar to the study by Saurel-Cubizolles et al [11]. This option included all 614,176 persons in the birth cohort who were not confirmed deceased at start of follow-up (603,150 live residents 1992 plus 11,026 emigrants 1967-1991).…”

“…The impact of migration on epidemiological studies is a topic that could be increasingly more important in a globalised world (Gushulak and MacPherson [11]). So far, the interest in many epidemiological studies has been focused on health among immigrants as compared to native residents in the country of destination (Williams and Ecob [8], Davey Smith et al [9], Abraído-Lanza et al [10], Ringbäck Weitoft et al [12]).…”