University of Bielefeld, Department of Epidemiology & International Public Health, School of Public Health, P,O, Box 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
Int J Equity Health. 2009 Jul 20;8:26. doi: 10.1186/1475-9276-8-26.
Compared to the majority population of a host country, migrants tend to have different health risks and health behaviour. We have hypothesised that these differences diminish with time passed since migration. We tested this hypothesis by examining smoking behaviour among Turkish migrants and their children born in Germany (second-generation migrants), stratified by educational level and, for the first generation, length of residence.
We estimated the prevalence of smoking based on the representative 2005 Mikrozensus, an annual survey including 1% of Germany's households. The 2005 Microcensus was the first to provide information that makes it possible to differentiate between first- and second-generation Turkish migrants. In total, 12,288 Turkish migrants and 421,635 native-born Germans were included in our study. The unit non-response is generally low (about 6% in 2005) because participation in the Microcensus is obligatory.
We found the prevalence of smoking in second-generation male Turkish migrants to be lower than in the first-generation group: 47.0% of first-generation Turkish migrants with a high level of education were smokers, in contrast to only 37.6% in the second generation. Within the German reference population, 29.9% were smokers. The percentage of Turkish women in our sample who smoked was generally smaller, but was not significantly lower in the second generation. In fact, the prevalence of smoking was highest among Turkish women of the second generation with a low level of education (40.9%), similar to younger second-generation German women with the same level of education.
We present the first representative data on changes in the prevalence of a risk factor for many chronic diseases among Turkish migrants in Germany. Male Turkish migrants (with a high level of education) showed a decrease over the generations while smoking prevalences of female Turkish migrants increased. In the second generation, prevalences partly converged with those of the German reference population or were even higher. Our hypothesis - that migration can be interpreted as a "health transition" - was thus partly confirmed.
与东道国的大多数人口相比,移民往往面临不同的健康风险和行为。我们假设,随着移民时间的推移,这些差异会逐渐缩小。我们通过考察土耳其移民及其在德国出生的子女(第二代移民)的吸烟行为来检验这一假设,该研究按教育程度和第一代移民的居住时间进行了分层。
我们根据具有代表性的 2005 年德国微型住户调查(Mikrozensus)的数据来估计吸烟的流行率,该调查每年对德国 1%的家庭进行调查。2005 年的微型住户调查首次提供了区分第一代和第二代土耳其移民的信息。共有 12288 名土耳其移民和 421635 名德国本地出生的人被纳入本研究。总的来说,2005 年的单元非响应率一般较低(约为 6%),因为参与微型住户调查是强制性的。
我们发现第二代男性土耳其移民的吸烟率低于第一代:受过高等教育的第一代土耳其移民中,吸烟者占 47.0%,而第二代移民中这一比例仅为 37.6%。在德国参考人群中,吸烟者的比例为 29.9%。我们样本中土耳其女性吸烟的比例总体上较小,但在第二代中没有显著降低。事实上,受教育程度较低的第二代土耳其女性吸烟率最高(40.9%),与受教育程度相同的年轻第二代德国女性相似。
我们首次提供了关于德国土耳其移民中许多慢性疾病危险因素流行率变化的代表性数据。土耳其男性移民(受教育程度较高)随着代际变化而减少,而土耳其女性移民的吸烟率则有所上升。在第二代中,流行率部分与德国参考人群趋同,甚至更高。因此,我们的假设——移民可以被解释为一种“健康转变”——得到了部分证实。