[ Reply | Canada Coffee Club Message Board ]
Posted by Marcus on 9/14/2005, 5:57:22 OTTAWA — Immigrants may land in Canada boasting better health than most native-born Canadians. But their physical well-being appears to deteriorate over time, especially among those who hailed from Africa, Asia and other non-European countries, a new Statistics Canada study says.
64.180.128.162
Immigrants’ health declines
Statistics Canada survey reveals that new Canadians have better health when they arrive — but that appears to change over time
BY NORMA GREENAWAY
Ottawa Citizen
The report says the health of non-European immigrants eventually declines to a point where it approximates that of the general Canadian-born population.
The study’s authors suggest possible causes of the shift include stresses associated with the process of immigrating, the natural aging process and couch potato lifestyle choices.
Smoking was not deemed a significant factor because non-European immigrants were only half as likely as the Canadian-born population to start smoking on a daily basis between 1994-95 and 2002-03, the authors wrote.
The study, based on an analysis of interviews with 14,100 adults who participated in the National Population Heath Survey, is the first to look at immigrants’ perception of their own health over the eight-year period.
“While non-European immigrants were not picking up the smoking habit, they were somewhat more likely than the Canadian-born to have become physically inactive during their leisure time,” the study says.
“This may explain why these immigrants were more likely to report declining health.”
It also found non-European immigrants were almost twice as likely as the Canadian-born population to have experienced a substantial weight gain since 1994-95, meaning at least a 10 per cent increase in their body mass index.
This group of immigrants also reported visiting a doctor more frequently than the others over the years. Non-European immigrants were 1.5 times more likely than the Canadian-born population and European immigrants to become so-called frequent visitors to doctors, meaning they visited or consulted a doctor at last six times during the previous year.
“The process of immigration itself is stressful and disruptive, possibly involving financial constraints, employment problems or the lack of a social support network, all of which may undermine health,” the report said. “The loss of a support network of family and friends in the country of origin can be particularly difficult.”
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
To return to www.CanadaCoffeeClub.com, use the link at the top of the page