Healthy immigrant effect | Special aspects of immigrant health Healthy immigrant effect | Special aspects of immigrant health
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The Health of Canada's Immigrants in 1994-95
http://www.statcan.ca/english/studies/82-003/archive/1996/hrar1996007004s0a03.pdf
The "healthy immigrant effect" observed in other countries also prevails in Canada. Immigrants, especially recent immigrants, are less likely than the Canadian-born population to have chronic conditions or disabilities. The effect is most evident among those from non-European countries, who constitute the majority of recent immigrants to Canada… However, among immigrants who have lived in Canada for more than 10 years, the prevalence of a number of chronic conditions and long-term disability approaches levels in the Canadian-born population. As their time in Canada lengthens, immigrants' lifestyles and health-related behaviour also come to resemble those of the Canadian-born. In addition, long-term immigrants’ use of health care services does not differ greatly from that of the Canadian-born population.The Health of Immigrants and Refugees in Canada
Health Status of Canada's Immigrants
http://www.igh.ualberta.ca/RHD/Synthesis/Immigrants.htm
Several studies suggest that newly-arriving immigrants are, on the whole, in better health than natives of resettlement countries, but are destined to lose this advantage… The healthy immigrant effect paints a discouraging picture of the price to be paid for resettling in a new country… Immigrants from the Americas and Europe tend to be in worse health than those coming from elsewhere… Stresses such as unemployment and poverty have an adverse effect on everyone, and immigration and resettlement increase the probability of experiencing these stresses. Furthermore, immigrant circumstance can amplify the effects of stress… The health status discrepancy between immigrants 50 and older and their younger counterparts is even more striking than it is between older and younger people in the general population…
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/020919/d020919a.htm
Previous research has looked at the physical health of immigrants, such as the presence of chronic conditions. The new physical health study revisits the issue by examining current available data on chronic conditions in general, but also focusses on four specific conditions: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. It also explores the role of health behaviours in explaining health patterns... Newly-arrived men had lower odds than Canadian-born men of reporting heart disease; but for diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer, there appeared to be no advantage for either male or female immigrants over their Canadian-born counterparts.Social determinants of health in Canada's immigrant population: results from the National Population Health Survey
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids
=11072880&dopt=Abstract
Our conceptual approach draws upon a 'population health' perspective, which suggests that the most important antecedents of human health status are not medical care inputs and health behaviours (smoking, diet, exercise, etc.), but rather social and economic characteristics of individuals and populations. We find no obvious, consistent pattern of association between socio-economic characteristics and immigration characteristics on the one hand, and health status on the other, in the NPHS data. This does not mean that socio-economic factors in Canada are not influential in shaping immigrants' health status. From Abstract.Leveling the playing field: using e-health to support the most vulnerable groups in society
http://www.e-healthconference.com/default.asp?id=846
Often, those people who make the greatest demands on the health care system are those facing the greatest barriers to using e-health tools... Unfortunately, in reality, the gap is widening...This track seeks submissions that describe successful efforts to use e-health applications to support the most vulnerable members of society. Examples include tools that: Facilitate the adaptation of health services to meet the needs of Aboriginal communities, diverse ethno-cultural groups and new immigrants; Promote efficient use of knowledge and health services by people living in poverty, who are not familiar with the health system or who have low levels of functional health literacy; Help people overcome the limitations that are often associated with chronic diseases, poverty, disabilities and advanced age; Enhance the ability of employers, health professionals and caregivers to assist members of underserved or vulnerable communities.Dynamics of Immigrants' Health in Canada
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/82-618-MIE/82-618-MIE2005002.htm
An earlier study found that 97% of new immigrants rated their health as good, very good or excellent six months after their arrival, compared with 88% for the general population… as time passes, this healthy immigrant effect tends to diminish… Recent immigrants from non-European countries were twice as likely as the Canadian-born to report deterioration in their health over an eight year period… The study found that these immigrants were almost twice as likely as Canadian-born to have a 10% or more increase in their body mass index.Immigration and Health
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/sr-sr/alt_formats/iacb-dgiac/pdf/pubs/hpr-rps/wp-dt/2001-
0105-immigration/2001-0105-immigration_e.pdf
Many previous research efforts were probably compromised by a tendency to lump all aspects of acculturation into a single composite index rather than recognizing that acculturation is a multidimensional process and different aspects of that process may affect different areas of individual functioning… The cultural incongruity that many immigrants experience may deter the utilization of services, especially those not considered to be essential (e.g. preventive screening and mental health services)... Evidence of the deterioration of immigrant health status over time suggests the need to direct funding toward the maintenance and promotion of immigrant health.Health Canada: The Immigration Experience as a Determinant of Health
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/H21-149-1999E.pdf
This report presents an overview of Canadian research on topics related to immigration health. It is an attempt to “take stock” of existing health research that is relevant both to Metropolis and to Health Canada’s areas of policy interest.
Special aspects of immigrant health
Social Inclusion as a Determinant of Health
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/phdd/pdf/overview_implications/03_inclusion_e.pdf
Poverty is a key cause and product of social exclusion. Its impacts on health status are well established… The Canadian economy and labour market are increasingly stratified along racial lines. Racialized group members are overrepresented in low income jobs and low-end occupations… Children whose health is most at risk tend to live in low-income families, single families, or among racialized group populations, including immigrant and refugee families and Aboriginal families. Among youth, the psychosocial stress of discrimination contributes to such health problems as hypertension, mental health concerns and substance abuse… Increasingly, research has begun to confirm the links between the minority status of ethnic, immigrant and racialized groups and low health status…American Journal of Public Health (AJPH)
http://www.ajph.org/cgi/collection/immigration?page=1
List of articles related to immigration and health.Canadian Health Network – Public Health Agency of Canada
http://www.canadian-health-network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1038611684536&
pagename=CHN-RCS%2FPage%2FHomePageTemplate&c=Page&lang=En
Topic Pages with a full range of information on featured health topics and population groups.Racialised Groups and Health Status: A Literature Review Exploring Poverty, Housing, Race-Based Discrimination and Access to Health Care as Determinants of Health for Racialised Groups
http://ceris.metropolis.net/events/seminars/2005/August/LiteratureReviewRGHS.pdf
This literature review provides ample evidence of the impact of income, housing, discrimination and access to health care as determinants of health. These determinants interact together and reinforce each other. The literature review has also demonstrated that poverty in Toronto is becoming increasingly defined along ethno-racial lines and that there are systemic barriers that impact racialised people in particular ways.Statistics Canada Data Sources on Immigrant Women
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/SW21-70-1998E.pdf
Census of Population; General Social Survey; Longitudinal Immigration Database; Survey of Consumer Finances; Household Facilities and Equipment Survey; Family Expenditure Survey; Food Expenditure Survey; National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth; National Population Health Survey; Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. 1991 CensusPromotion of healthy eating: Among new immigrant women in Ontario
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3961/is_200210/ai_n9092473
Before migration, many immigrants, especially those from non-Western countries, consume a healthy diet, but this changes on migration… Immigrants, especially refugees, are disproportionately poorer than the general population, making poverty a confounder of any relationship between immigration and health… Nutrition intervention for new immigrant women must consider the social context of these women's lives, address cultural, linguistic, economic and informational barriers and consider how these change over time...Food, Foodways and Immigrant Experience
http://canada.metropolis.net/events/ethnocultural/publications/aliments_e.pdf
Unavailability or high costs of foods used in traditional diets, changes in lifestyle and working conditions, and pressures for integration to a new culture result in dietary modifications, often with negative impacts on health. People living in Canada for less than ten years were at significantly greater nutritional risk than people born in Canada or people that immigrated more than 10 years ago…Immigrant Workers at Risk: The Urgent Need for Improved Workplace Safety and Health Policies and Programs (US)
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/laborday/upload/immigrant_risk.pdf
Foreign-born workers are likely to toil in high-risk occupations, work in the unregulated, “informal” economy and often fear reporting workplace injuries. Many are not aware of their legal rights to safety and health on the job and to workers’ compensation if they are injured…The share of foreign-born employment increased by 22 percent in the US between 1996 and 2000, the share of fatal occupational injuries for this population increased by 43 percent.Health Profile - Waterloo Region Community
http://chdres.region.waterloo.on.ca/publications/comhealth01.htm
What makes people healthy?
Ethno-cultural aspects of health: Culture, Race, Ethnic Origin, Religious Affiliation, Language, Immigration
Socio-demographic aspects of health: Social Support, Families, Lone-Parent Families, Living Arrangements
Educational and economic aspects of health: Education, Education and Literacy, Education and Gender, Patterns of School Attendance, Level of Education, Income, Income and Lifestyle, Personal Income and Gender, Family Income
Occupational and employment aspects of health:
Occupation, Occupation and Socio-Demographics, Occupation and Gender, Industry, Unemployment, Unemployment and Youth, Unemployment and Gender.Canadian Research on Immigration and Health
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H21-149-1999E.pdf
Immigrants do not identify any more unmet health care needs than the general population; however, twice as many lower-income immigrants report unmet health care needs compared to those with higher incomes... Serious communication problems lead ethnic elderly populations to receive “deficient treatment, extended hospital stays, unnecessary testing, premature discharge and problematic follow-up... Interpretation services, both linguistic and cultural, are needed to provide the ethnic elderly with effective health care... Recent immigrants in general are healthier than the general population; however, they lose this advantage over time. Particular groups, such as refugees, are not as healthy, and other at-risk groups such as those from developing countries and those with lower incomes and higher levels of unemployment have not been thoroughly investigated... Knowledge of deteriorating health status and steps to prevent it would be of benefit to the population as a whole. Health Canada, 1999Promoting Asthma Control in Children - Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, 2004
http://www.rnao.org/bestpractices/PDF/BPG_ped_asthma.pdf
Inner-city children with asthma…. cockroach allergy and exposure to cockroach allergen…Environmental Threats to Children - Toronto Public Health, 2005
http://www.toronto.ca/health/hphe/pdf/tr_environmental_threats_all.pdf
There are over 434,000 children (0-14 years) living in Toronto (2001), accounting for 17.5% of Toronto’s population. 40% of Toronto children and one out of every five children in first grade were born outside Canada… Data to clarify the relationships among poverty, ethnicity, exposure, susceptibility and health disparities among children across Toronto are clearly lacking... Indoors, rental units and low-income units, particularly apartments and those with frequent turnover in occupancy, can become more readily afflicted with cockroach infestations and therefore, more frequently sprayed with pesticides... Dampness can contribute to house dust mites and mould growth.Relationship Between Children’s Health and Environmental Contaminants
http://www.ocfp.on.ca/local/files/EHC/ChildrensHealth/Chapter%202.pdf
Risk of exposure to what can be higher doses of toxins… Because of the nature of their diets and food preferences, and the relatively greater amount of food eaten per unit body weight, children are particularly prone to exposure to contaminants in food… recent research suggests that some groups (e.g. immigrants) may not be aware of these advisories and that their is wide variability in the degree to which fishers follow the recommended catching, cleaning and cooking practices in order to minimize contaminant exposure.Health Status and Health Behaviour among Immigrants
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-003-SIE/2002001/pdf/82-003-SIE2002005.pdf
With adjustment for socio-demographic factors, the findings for chronic conditions in general revealed a remarkable gradient of worsening immigrant health with increasing time since immigration. Moreover, immigrants who had been in Canada the longest had outcomes similar to those of their Canadian-born counterparts... The results were not as consistent for specific chronic conditions, perhaps in part because such outcomes were rarer... The evidence that immigrants adopt poor health behaviours and that their health (as measured by the selected chronic conditions) worsens with increasing time in Canada is weak. A longitudinal analysis in which immigrant respondents are followed over a period of time is needed to shed further light on these patterns.Immigrant Women’s Health, Eating Habits
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/3068/2/Sever_Intro.pdf
Whether by choice or by necessity, displaced populations often find themselves in countries where the food habits and food availability may be extremely different from the donar society that they have left behind… Immigrants, who may have arrived from areas of the world where food is scarce, are suddenly bombarded by cheap, tasty, easily accessible, but not necessarily healthy food choices… The change in food habits is not simply “cultural,” since food intake is directly linked to long-term health prospects… The balance between how immigrants smoothly adjust to their new surroundings while retaining the healthy aspects of their preimmigration lives is a challenge for educators and health professionals alike…CAAT study identifies serious barriers to care for immigrants with HIV
http://www.ohtn.on.ca/pdf/outlookfall2001.pdf
People living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) who are immigrants, refugees or without legal status in Canada face enormous barriers in accessing health care, HIV treatments, legal and community services, according to a research project funded through The OHTN Priority Initiatives Program.AIDS among African immigrants to Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aids/canada.html
It's well known that the rate of AIDS infection in some African countries is disproportionately high. But a new study has found there's a similarly high rate among African immigrants in Canada. The causes are complex and the effects are devastating. And now members of the immigrant community are calling for information and action from the federal government. CBC News Online, September 22, 2003Addiction Treatment System - Ethnocultural Communities
http://sano.camh.net/resource/ethno.htm
Access to addiction services for members of many ethnocultural communities is limited by systemic and service barriers. A number of supports such as cultural interpreters, translators, co-therapists or para-professionals from the community can be used to improve access. Other systemic adjustments such as employment practices, translation of program information and intake forms, and establishment of partnerships with multicultural or ethno-specific agencies can decrease any difficulty associated with the change process and increase the confidence of communities that have had limited or no access to addiction treatment services.Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Lived Experience of Immigrant, Refugee and Visible Minority Women
http://www.pwhce.ca/ptsd-immigrant.htm
Immigrant and refugee women are coming from war-torn countries and from countries where they may have exposed to disaster, incidents of extreme trauma and continued gender oppression. Statistics Canada (1996) reported that 4,125 women immigrated to Saskatchewan between 1991 and 1996. 185 women arrived from the Middle East, 460 from Africa, 230 from Central and South America and 1,950 from Southern and Eastern Asia. In many cases, the process of migration and the experiences of settlement as an immigrant in Canada have added to the distress and trauma.Healthy Immigrant Children: A Demographic and Geographic Analysis - October 1998
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/sdc/pkrf/publications/research/1998-000133/page02.shtml
Although there is little variation in the health status of immigrant and non-immigrant children, the formal and informal support accessed by their parents varies considerably... The findings confirm the hypotheses that a child's experience varies more according to the characteristics of the household than those of the individual child, and that there are significant variations among immigrant groups in their needs for social services and, in particular, for health services, based on length of time since immigration and geographic location.Healthy Aging
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/82-618-MIE/82-618-MIE2005004.htm
The effect of household income on healthy aging for middle aged adults raises the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms by which low income impacts health. A better understanding of these mechanisms could allow policy makers to develop programs to reduce this effect, thus improving population health…Suicide in Canada's immigrant population (1995-1997)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040329/d040329a.htm
Immigrants are less likely than native-born Canadians to commit suicide, immigrants living in Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver had lower suicide rates than immigrants in other parts of Canada… Among immigrants, the age-standardized rate (which takes account of the unique age distribution of the immigrant population) was 7.9 suicides per 100,000, compared with 13.3 per 100,000 for people born in Canada… The study found that immigrant suicide rates more closely matched those in the immigrants' countries of birth than those of Canada. Statistics Canada, The DailyTowards a Downtown Community Dental Clinic in Victoria
http://www.vipirg.ca/assets/publications/research_reports/dental_report.pdf
The relationship between income and dental health is undeniable... Statistics Canada reports that dental insurance coverage is strongly associated with household income. At the highest income level the rate of coverage was about triple that for the lowest level (70 % compared to 23 %)… There are large differences in dental visits by household income with only 41 % of people in the lowest income group visiting a dentist in the last year, while 78 % of individuals in the highest income group had done so.GTA dentist polishes up on good deeds
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article
&cid=1143198159895&call_pageid=968332188492&
col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
For today only, the 41-year-old dentist was not charging for fillings, extractions and other dental work for anyone who walked in on a first-come, first-serve basis… Sungaila is a dentist from Lithuania, where she said everyone has access to free dental care. She said she was appalled that so many people… had no insurance to pay for it… People, many recent immigrants among them, were lining up to get into the dentist's chair… For dental work that would cost in the hundreds of dollars, they came away with repaired or pulled teeth, and didn't have to reach into their wallets or purses. Toronto Star, 2006.Food Security, Health and the Immigrant Experience
http://ceris.metropolis.net/Virtual%20Library/RFPReports/Welsh1997.pdf
AVAILABILITY: Can people find the foods they want in Toronto and are they conveniently located? With some exceptions, participants reported that they were able to find foods similar to those in their country of origin. What seemed to be a common concern was the distance, time, and price paid for accessing these food items. While the former two may require examination of the current marketing structures and retail practices, the latter may require examining whether local production of some of the popular food items would be feasible in order to improve supply and consequently to lower retail prices.
ACCESS: Can people afford to buy the food they want, and/or are there other means of accessing these foods? Research findings indicate that rather than availability, it is accessibility which is the major concern for food security among immigrant groups. The concerns focussed around three dimensions: distance to travel, time spent for shopping, and affordability of food items.Task Force on Newcomer Access to Health Care in NS
http://www.misa.ns.ca/WhatsNew/TaskForce.htm
Our Settlement Worker alone in December 2002 had over 111 client contacts involving medical appointments and problem solving... Policy makers and service providers often lack the knowledge and awareness of how to make health care accessible and sensitive to newcomers. With funding support by Health Canada, Population and Public Health Branch, Atlantic Region, an inter-sectoral Task Force is being formed to collaboratively address these inequities in health care access and provide policy makers in Nova Scotia with strategic options to help removing barriers and reducing obstacles for newcomers.Bridging the Gap to Achieve Equity in Health
http://www.misa.ns.ca/images/PDF%27s/TFPolicyPlatform.pdf
Newcomer Health Task Force Policy Platform : Guidelines for service providers and stakeholders to ensure newcomer access to culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services.Health Indicators – Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/defin.htm
Long-term Unemployment: Unemployed people tend to experience more health problems.
Low Income Rate: A widely used measure of socio-economic status. Higher income is associated with better health;
Children in Low-income Families: Proportion of children under age 18 living in economic families with incomes below Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-offs (LICO) - a widely used measure of children at risk.Defining and measuring poverty: Implications for the health of Canadians http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/4/355
In sum, the cash and in-kind benefits that result from poverty-reduction policies that are based on an absolute conceptualization of poverty will be available to a smaller proportion of Canadians and will be of less monetary value for recipients than benefits that result from policies that are based on a relative conceptualization of poverty. Accordingly, benefits that result from policies that assume poverty is absolute in nature cost less financially than benefits that result from policies that are based on a relative conceptualization of poverty. The less costly nature of policies that are based on an absolute conceptualization of poverty likely make these policies more appealing to policy makers than policies that assume poverty is relative in nature.