Stephen E H, Foote K, Hendershot G E, Schoenborn C A
Georgetown University.
Adv Data. 1994 Feb 14(241):1-12.
The health status of immigrants is of vital interest to health policy planners as the number of immigrants in the United States increases. This report has shown that, overall, foreign-born persons had better health than the U.S.-born population, although this health advantage varied by length of residence in the United States. In virtually every measure of health status, and with regard to almost every sociodemographic characteristic, the most recent immigrants were healthier than foreign-born persons who have lived in the United States 10 years or more as well as healthier than the U.S.-born population. Immigrants who had lived in the United States 10 years or longer were generally healthier than U.S.-born adults, although the differences were not as striking as between recent immigrants and the native-born population. These findings may be explained in several ways. First, recent cohorts of immigrants may have been healthier than earlier cohorts of immigrants at the time of immigration. If so, as their duration of residence in the United States increases, they will continue to be significantly healthier than native-born persons. Second, earlier cohorts of immigrants may have been as healthy as recent cohorts at the time of immigration, but their health has deteriorated with increased duration of residence in the United States. This suggests that immigrants had or acquired physical conditions or behaviors that put them at risk in their new environment or that access to health care has been limited. It also suggests that more recent cohorts of immigrants could experience a similar deterioration of health as their duration of residence in the United States increases. Finally, these findings may reflect a combination of these influences or other factors not considered. To understand these patterns will require additional research, including comparative studies of the health of immigrants in the United States with the health of nonmigrants (stayers) in the countries of immigrant origin.
随着美国移民数量的增加，移民的健康状况成为健康政策规划者至关重要的关注点。本报告表明，总体而言，外国出生的人比美国本土出生的人健康状况更好，尽管这种健康优势因在美国居住的时长而异。在几乎每一项健康状况衡量指标以及几乎每一个社会人口特征方面，最新的移民都比已在美国居住10年或更长时间的外国出生者更健康，也比美国本土出生的人口更健康。在美国居住10年或更长时间的移民通常比美国本土出生的成年人更健康，尽管差异不如最新移民与本土出生人口之间那么显著。这些发现可以从几个方面来解释。首先，最近几批移民在移民时可能比早期移民更健康。如果是这样，随着他们在美国居住时间的增加，他们将继续比本土出生的人健康得多。其次，早期移民在移民时可能与最近几批移民一样健康，但随着在美国居住时间的增加，他们的健康状况已经恶化。这表明移民有或获得了使他们在新环境中面临风险的身体状况或行为模式，或者获得医疗保健的机会有限。这也表明，随着在美国居住时间的增加，最近几批移民可能会经历类似的健康状况恶化。最后，这些发现可能反映了这些影响因素或其他未考虑因素的综合作用。要理解这些模式需要更多的研究，包括对美国移民健康状况与移民来源国非移民（留居者）健康状况的比较研究。
