Cognitive Disability Among Arab Americans by Nativity Status and Arrival Year: Lack of Evidence for the Healthy Migrant Effect

The objectives of this study were to estimate the age- and sex-adjusted prevalence and associations of cognitive disability by (1) nativity status and (2) arrival year (pre-1991, 1991 –2000, 2001–2013, and 2014–2018). We analyzed 11 years (2008–2018) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Samples (weightedn = 264,086; ages ≥ 45 years). Weighted means, percentages, age- and sex-adjusted prevalence estimates, and logistic regression results (crude and adjusted) were calculated. Among all Arab Americans, the age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of cognitive disability was 6.5%. The prevalence was lower for US-born (4.0%) compared to foreign-born (6.0%) (p-value  <  0.0001). In logistic regression results, foreign-born Arab Americans were more likely to have a cognitive disability compared to US-born Arab Americans after adjusting for age and sex (OR = 1.41; 95% CI = 1.24, 1.61). Among foreign-born, Arab Americans arriving in 2014 or later had a lowe r prevalence of cognitive disability (3.4%) compared to all other arrival years at approximately 4.7%. With those arriving prior to 1991 as the reference category, those arriving between 1991 and 2000 were more likely to report a cognitive disability (OR = 1.05; 95% CI = 1.00, 1.08). However , those arriving between 2014 and 2018 were less likely to report a cognitive disability (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.73, 0.88). These findings challenge the universality of ...
Source: Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research