ArticleCanadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique2016
An investigation of the healthy migrant hypothesis: Pre-emigration characteristics of those in the British 1946 birth cohort study.
Article in Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Association between Migration and Prevalence of Allergic Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International archives of allergy and immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Associations of migrant and refugee status with physical comorbidity and mortality among young adults with incident non-affective psychotic disorders.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- Cardiovascular Disease Burden among African Migrants.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2025Review
- Article
- Patterns of Migration Following Dementia Diagnosis.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Air Pollution, Health Shocks and Labor Mobility.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Nutrition, Immigration and Health Determinants Are Linked to Verbal Fluency among Anglophone Adults in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2020Article
- Depression in middle and older adulthood: the role of immigration, nutrition, and other determinants of health in the Canadian longitudinal study on aging.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
- An observational study of immigrant mortality differences in Norway by reason for migration, length of stay and characteristics of sending countries.BMC public health · 2018Observational
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe finding that migrants to high-income countries have lower rates of morbidity and mortality than non-migrants, controlling for socioeconomic position, is often attributed to the "healthy migrant" hypothesis, which suggests that only the healthiest individuals choose to migrate. This prospective study investigates the healthy migrant hypothesis in a cohort of British emigrants using pre-migration health indicators. We also investigate how early-life health characteristics relate to age at emigration and whether or not the emigrant returned home.
methodsData are from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, a nationally representative cohort study of people born in England, Scotland or Wales in March 1946. Childhood socio-economic position, health and cognitive ability were compared between 4,378 non-emigrants and 984 emigrants. Of the emigrants, 427 emigrated before age 20 and 557 after that age; 602 emigrants remained abroad and 382 returned home.
resultsEmigrants had better childhood health (especially greater height), higher childhood socio-economic position and better childhood cognitive ability at age 8 than non-emigrants. Return emigrants were very similar to emigrants who remained abroad.
conclusionsWe found support for the healthy migrant hypothesis in a cohort of British emigrants. Our findings improve an understanding of how health is distributed within and across nations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.