Anderson Kelly K, Khan Jahin Ali, Edwards Jordan, Le Britney, Longobardi Giuseppe, Witt Ivan, Alonso-Sánchez María Francisca, Palaniyappan Lena
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London Ontario Canada.
Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London Ontario Canada.
Psychol Med. 2024 Aug;54(11):3063-3070. doi: 10.1017/S003329172400117X. Epub 2024 May 22.
Migration is a well-established risk factor for psychotic disorders, and migrant language has been proposed as a novel factor that may improve our understanding of this relationship. Our objective was to explore the association between indicators of linguistic distance and the risk of psychotic disorders among first-generation migrant groups.
Using linked health administrative data, we constructed a retrospective cohort of first-generation migrants to Ontario over a 20-year period (1992-2011). Linguistic distance of the first language was categorized using several approaches, including language family classifications, estimated acquisition time, syntax-based distance scores, and lexical-based distance scores. Incident cases of non-affective psychotic disorder were identified over a 5- to 25-year period. We used Poisson regression to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) for each language variable, after adjustment for knowledge of English at arrival and other factors.
Our cohort included 1 863 803 first-generation migrants. Migrants whose first language was in a different language family than English had higher rates of psychotic disorders (IRR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.16), relative to those whose first language was English. Similarly, migrants in the highest quintile of linguistic distance based on lexical similarity had an elevated risk of psychotic disorder (IRR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.24). Adjustment for knowledge of English at arrival had minimal effect on observed estimates.
We found some evidence that linguistic factors that impair comprehension may play a role in the excess risk of psychosis among migrant groups; however, the magnitude of effect is small and unlikely to fully explain the elevated rates of psychotic disorder across migrant groups.
移民是精神障碍的一个公认风险因素，移民语言被认为是一个新因素，可能有助于我们更好地理解这种关系。我们的目的是探讨语言距离指标与第一代移民群体中精神障碍风险之间的关联。
利用关联的卫生行政数据，我们构建了一个1992年至2011年期间移民到安大略省的第一代移民的回顾性队列。第一语言的语言距离采用多种方法进行分类，包括语系分类、估计习得时间、基于句法的距离分数和基于词汇的距离分数。在5至25年期间确定非情感性精神障碍的发病病例。在调整了抵达时的英语知识和其他因素后，我们使用泊松回归来估计每个语言变量的发病率比（IRR）。
我们的队列包括1863803名第一代移民。第一语言与英语属于不同语系的移民患精神障碍的比率更高（IRR = 1.08，95% CI 1.01 - 1.16），相对于第一语言为英语的移民。同样，基于词汇相似性处于语言距离最高五分位数的移民患精神障碍的风险增加（IRR = 1.15，95% CI 1.06 - 1.24）。调整抵达时的英语知识对观察到的估计值影响最小。
我们发现一些证据表明，影响理解的语言因素可能在移民群体中精神疾病风险增加方面起作用；然而，影响程度较小，不太可能完全解释移民群体中精神障碍发病率升高的原因。
