Social Science and Medicine
Volume 73, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 744-751

Migration and mortality trajectories: A study of individuals born in the rural community of Överkalix, Sweden (Article)

Tinghög P.* , Carstensen J. , Kaati G. , Edvinsson S. , Sjöström M. , Bygren L.O.
  • a Department of Bioscience and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, SE, 141 83 Huddinge, Sweden, Department of Neuroradiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
  • b Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
  • c Department of Bioscience and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, SE, 141 83 Huddinge, Sweden, Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Social Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
  • d Demographic Database, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
  • e Department of Bioscience and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, SE, 141 83 Huddinge, Sweden
  • f Department of Bioscience and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, SE, 141 83 Huddinge, Sweden, Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Social Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Abstract

Migration may result in exposure to factors that are both beneficial and harmful for good health. How the act of migration is associated with mortality, or whether the socio-economic condition of migrants prior to migration influences their mortality trajectory, is not well understood. In the present study, a cohort of 413 randomly selected individuals born in the rural community of Överkalix, Sweden, between 1890 and 1935 were followed from birth to either death or old age. Around 50% of the study-population moved away from Överkalix at one time or another. To adjust for a potential bias resulting from self-selection among the migrants, the father's occupational status was used together with parents' and grandparents' longevity. Overall, migration could not be shown to predict mortality when the backgrounds of the migrants were taken into account. Nonetheless, socio-economic background conditions appeared to moderate the association, decreasing the mortality rates for migrants with relatively good pre-migratory socio-economic conditions, while increasing it for migrants with poorer pre-migratory conditions. However, further scrutiny revealed that this effect modification mainly affected the female migrants' mortality. In conclusion, the study suggests that there is no general association between migration and mortality, but that migrants with better socio-economic resources are more likely to improve their mortality trajectories than migrants with poorer resources. Better pre-migratory conditions hence appear to be important for avoiding health-adverse circumstances and gaining access to health beneficial living conditions when moving to foreign environments - especially for women. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Author Keywords

Migration Pre-migration conditions Industrialisation Self-selection Sweden Urbanisation Trajectory Mortality

Index Keywords

rural area Proportional Hazards Models industry human industrialization birthplace rural population controlled study health status Aged grandparent Urbanization Longevity socioeconomic conditions Sweden social status Humans male adverse outcome female Aged, 80 and over trajectory population research Article employment status father adult migration health care access cohort analysis Emigration and Immigration mortality parent
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-80051886842&doi=10.1016%2fj.socscimed.2011.06.055&partnerID=40&md5=a959d1aad4f5373f9f24c1d0f1da7f83
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.055
ISSN: 02779536
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English