Healthy immigrants, unhealthy ageing?: Analysis of health decline among older migrants and natives across European countries

Su Yeon Jang; Anna Oksuzyan; Mikko Myrskylä; Frank J. van Lenthe; Silvia Loi

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101478

Healthy immigrants, unhealthy ageing? Analysis of health decline among older migrants and natives across European countries

Su Yeon Jang^*
, Anna Oksuzyan
, Mikko Myrskylä
, Frank J. van Lenthe
, Silvia Loi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Public Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

The probability of having multiple chronic conditions simultaneously, or multimorbidity, tends to increase with age. Immigrants face a particularly high risk of unhealthy ageing. This study investigates the immigrant-native disparities in the speed of age-related chronic disease accumulation, focusing on the number of chronic health conditions; and considers the heterogeneity of this trajectory within immigrant populations by origin and receiving country. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 2004 to 2020 on adults aged 50 to 79 from 28 European countries and employ both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For longitudinal panel analyses, we use fixed-effects regression models to account for the unobserved heterogeneity related to individual characteristics including migration background. Our results indicate that immigrants report a higher number of chronic conditions at all ages relative to their native-born peers, but also that the immigrant-native differential in the number of chronic conditions decreases from age 65 onwards. When considering differences by origin country, we find that the speed of chronic disease accumulation is slower among immigrants from the Americas and the Asia and Oceania country groups than it is among natives. When looking at differences by receiving country group, we observe that the speed of accumulating chronic diseases is slower among immigrants in Eastern Europe than among natives, particularly at older ages. Our findings suggest that age-related trajectories of health vary substantially among immigrant populations by origin and destination country, which underscore that individual migration histories play a persistent role in shaping the health of ageing immigrant populations throughout the life course.

Original language	English
Article number	101478
Journal	SSM - Population Health
Volume	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101478
Publication status	Published - Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Mikko Myrskylä was supported by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) , FLUX consortium, decision numbers 345130 and 345131 ; by the National Institute on Aging ( R01AG075208 ); by grants to the Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center from the Max Planck Society , Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation , Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki , and Cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo; and the European Union (ERC Synergy, BIOSFER, 101071773). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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1-s2.0-S235282732300143X-mainFinal published version, 4.42 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{e2c7cb4f2510410ab42241fc5ed736c1,

title = "Healthy immigrants, unhealthy ageing?: Analysis of health decline among older migrants and natives across European countries",

abstract = "The probability of having multiple chronic conditions simultaneously, or multimorbidity, tends to increase with age. Immigrants face a particularly high risk of unhealthy ageing. This study investigates the immigrant-native disparities in the speed of age-related chronic disease accumulation, focusing on the number of chronic health conditions; and considers the heterogeneity of this trajectory within immigrant populations by origin and receiving country. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 2004 to 2020 on adults aged 50 to 79 from 28 European countries and employ both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For longitudinal panel analyses, we use fixed-effects regression models to account for the unobserved heterogeneity related to individual characteristics including migration background. Our results indicate that immigrants report a higher number of chronic conditions at all ages relative to their native-born peers, but also that the immigrant-native differential in the number of chronic conditions decreases from age 65 onwards. When considering differences by origin country, we find that the speed of chronic disease accumulation is slower among immigrants from the Americas and the Asia and Oceania country groups than it is among natives. When looking at differences by receiving country group, we observe that the speed of accumulating chronic diseases is slower among immigrants in Eastern Europe than among natives, particularly at older ages. Our findings suggest that age-related trajectories of health vary substantially among immigrant populations by origin and destination country, which underscore that individual migration histories play a persistent role in shaping the health of ageing immigrant populations throughout the life course.",

author = "Jang, \{Su Yeon\} and Anna Oksuzyan and Mikko Myrskyl{\"a} and \{van Lenthe\}, \{Frank J.\} and Silvia Loi",

note = "Funding Information: Mikko Myrskyl{\"a} was supported by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) , FLUX consortium, decision numbers 345130 and 345131 ; by the National Institute on Aging ( R01AG075208 ); by grants to the Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center from the Max Planck Society , Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation , Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki , and Cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo; and the European Union (ERC Synergy, BIOSFER, 101071773). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101478",

language = "English",

volume = "23",

journal = "SSM - Population Health",

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T2 - Analysis of health decline among older migrants and natives across European countries

AU - Jang, Su Yeon

AU - Oksuzyan, Anna

AU - Myrskylä, Mikko

AU - van Lenthe, Frank J.

AU - Loi, Silvia

N1 - Funding Information: Mikko Myrskylä was supported by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) , FLUX consortium, decision numbers 345130 and 345131 ; by the National Institute on Aging ( R01AG075208 ); by grants to the Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center from the Max Planck Society , Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation , Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki , and Cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo; and the European Union (ERC Synergy, BIOSFER, 101071773). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023/9

Y1 - 2023/9

N2 - The probability of having multiple chronic conditions simultaneously, or multimorbidity, tends to increase with age. Immigrants face a particularly high risk of unhealthy ageing. This study investigates the immigrant-native disparities in the speed of age-related chronic disease accumulation, focusing on the number of chronic health conditions; and considers the heterogeneity of this trajectory within immigrant populations by origin and receiving country. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 2004 to 2020 on adults aged 50 to 79 from 28 European countries and employ both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For longitudinal panel analyses, we use fixed-effects regression models to account for the unobserved heterogeneity related to individual characteristics including migration background. Our results indicate that immigrants report a higher number of chronic conditions at all ages relative to their native-born peers, but also that the immigrant-native differential in the number of chronic conditions decreases from age 65 onwards. When considering differences by origin country, we find that the speed of chronic disease accumulation is slower among immigrants from the Americas and the Asia and Oceania country groups than it is among natives. When looking at differences by receiving country group, we observe that the speed of accumulating chronic diseases is slower among immigrants in Eastern Europe than among natives, particularly at older ages. Our findings suggest that age-related trajectories of health vary substantially among immigrant populations by origin and destination country, which underscore that individual migration histories play a persistent role in shaping the health of ageing immigrant populations throughout the life course.

AB - The probability of having multiple chronic conditions simultaneously, or multimorbidity, tends to increase with age. Immigrants face a particularly high risk of unhealthy ageing. This study investigates the immigrant-native disparities in the speed of age-related chronic disease accumulation, focusing on the number of chronic health conditions; and considers the heterogeneity of this trajectory within immigrant populations by origin and receiving country. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 2004 to 2020 on adults aged 50 to 79 from 28 European countries and employ both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For longitudinal panel analyses, we use fixed-effects regression models to account for the unobserved heterogeneity related to individual characteristics including migration background. Our results indicate that immigrants report a higher number of chronic conditions at all ages relative to their native-born peers, but also that the immigrant-native differential in the number of chronic conditions decreases from age 65 onwards. When considering differences by origin country, we find that the speed of chronic disease accumulation is slower among immigrants from the Americas and the Asia and Oceania country groups than it is among natives. When looking at differences by receiving country group, we observe that the speed of accumulating chronic diseases is slower among immigrants in Eastern Europe than among natives, particularly at older ages. Our findings suggest that age-related trajectories of health vary substantially among immigrant populations by origin and destination country, which underscore that individual migration histories play a persistent role in shaping the health of ageing immigrant populations throughout the life course.

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