Mortality and major disease risk among migrants of the 1991 –2001 Balkan wars to Sweden: A register-based cohort study

by Edda Bjork Thordardottir, Li Yin, Arna Hauksdottir, Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Anna-Clara Hollander, Christina M. Hultman, Paul Lichtenstein, Weimin Ye, Filip K. Arnberg, Fang Fang, Emily A. Holmes, Unnur Anna Valdimarsdottir BackgroundIn recent decades, millions of refugees and migrants have fled wars and sought asylum in Europe. The aim of this study was to quantify the risk of mortality and major diseases among migrants during the 1991 –2001 Balkan wars to Sweden in comparison to other European migrants to Sweden during the same period. Methods and findingsWe conducted a register-based cohort study of 104,770 migrants to Sweden from the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan wars and 147,430 migrants to Sweden from 24 other European countries during the same period (1991 –2001). Inpatient and specialized outpatient diagnoses of cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and psychiatric disorders were obtained from the Swedish National Patient Register and the Swedish Cancer Register, and mortality data from the Swedish Cause of Death Register. Adjusting for individual- level data on sociodemographic characteristics and emigration country smoking prevalence, we used Cox regressions to contrast risks of health outcomes for migrants of the Balkan wars and other European migrants. During an average of 12.26 years of follow-up, being a migrant of the Balkan wars was as sociated with an elevated risk of being diagnosed with CVD (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.34–1.43,p
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research