Ethnicity and postmigration health trajectory in new immigrants to Canada

Abstract

Objectives: In this prospective cohort study, we examined the trajectory of general health during the first 4 years after new immigrants' arrival in Canada. We focused on the change in self-rated health trajectories and their gender and ethnic disparities.

Methods: Data were derived from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada and were collected between April 2001 and November 2005 by Statistics Canada. We used weighted samples of 3309 men and 3351 women aged between 20 and 59 years.

Results: At arrival, only 3.5% of new immigrants rated their general health as poor. Significant and steady increases in poor health were revealed during the following 4 years, especially among ethnic minorities and women. Specifically, we found a higher risk of poor health among West Asian and Chinese men and among South Asian and Chinese women than among their European counterparts.

Conclusions: Newly arrived immigrants are extremely healthy, but the health advantage dissipates rapidly during the initial years of settlement in Canada. Women and minority ethnic groups may be more vulnerable to social changes and postmigration settlement.

FIGURE 1—

Age- and gender-standardized prevalence of self-rated poor health for (a) men and (b) women: Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, 2001–2005. Note. Because of the small incidence in 2001, we estimated some ratios for pooled samples of more than 1 ethnic group.