New research from Duke University challenges a long-held assumption that immigrants are generally healthy before they move to the United States but become less so while living here.The research suggests that widely used data from National Institutes of Health surveys paint an incomplete picture of immigrant health because many of the questions on the surveys inquire specifically about health care interactions.Those questions miss the many immigrants who, for a variety of reasons, do not seek health care at all, said Jen’nan Read, a Duke sociologist who is also a faculty member of the Duke Global Health Institute. Read authored the study along with doctoral candidate Megan Reynolds.The result: While immigrants may not be visibly ill when they start their lives in the United States, they may have underlying, chronic maladies like high blood pressure that can go undetected for years because they simply don’t know they’re sick, Read said. Over time, immigrants’ likelihood of interacting with the healthcare system increases as they become more comfortable with life in their new country and are then more likely to think seriously about their health, Read said.
via Duke Global Health Institute.
