Department of Sociology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Health Place. 2017 Nov;48:1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.08.011. Epub 2017 Sep 6.
Canada and the U.S. are two major immigrant-receiving countries characterized by different immigration policies and health care systems. The present study examines whether immigrant health selection, or the "healthy immigrant effect", differs by destination and what factors may account for differences in immigrant health selection. We use 12 years of U.S. National Health Interview Survey and Canadian Community Health Survey data to compare the risks of overweight/obesity and chronic health conditions among new immigrants in the two countries. Results suggest a more positive health selection of immigrants to Canada than the U.S. Specifically, newly arrived U.S. immigrants are more likely to be overweight or obese and have serious chronic health conditions than their Canadian counterparts. The difference in overweight/obesity was explained by differences in source regions and educational levels of immigrants across the two countries. But this is not the case for serious chronic conditions. These results suggest that immigration-related policies can potentially shape immigrant health selection.
加拿大和美国是两个主要的移民接收国，其移民政策和医疗保健系统存在差异。本研究考察了移民健康选择（即“健康移民效应”）是否因目的地而异，以及哪些因素可能导致移民健康选择的差异。我们使用了 12 年的美国国家健康访谈调查和加拿大社区健康调查数据，比较了两国新移民超重/肥胖和慢性健康状况的风险。结果表明，加拿大对移民的健康选择比美国更为积极。具体而言，新抵达美国的移民比加拿大移民更有可能超重或肥胖，并且患有严重的慢性健康状况。超重/肥胖的差异可以通过两国移民的来源地区和教育水平的差异来解释。但对于严重的慢性疾病则并非如此。这些结果表明，与移民相关的政策可能会影响移民的健康选择。
