ArticleDemography2017
Explaining the Immigrant Health Advantage: Self-selection and Protection in Health-Related Factors Among Five Major National-Origin Immigrant Groups in the United States.
Article in Demography, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
The trial behind it
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
97 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Associations between Immigration Status and Stroke Incidence and Mortality.BioMed research international · 2022Pooled it
- Health Risk Behaviours by Immigrants' Duration of Residence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Leukocyte mitochondrial DNA copy number and built environment in Mexican Americans: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Do all migrants decline equally? Gender and occupational status differences in post-migration health in Italy.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Intergenerational socioeconomic mobility and adulthood all-cause mortality in the Hispanic community health study/study of Latinos.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Disability Among Middle Aged and Older Immigrants: Differences by Citizenship, English Proficiency, and Years in United States.Journal of aging and health · 2026Article
- Access to Care and Self-Rated Health Status: Comparison of Rural and Urban Immigrants in the US.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Population Aging and the Burden of Chronic Health Conditions Among Mexican-Born Undocumented Farmworkers in the U.S.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Birthplace and nutrient intake across ethnic subgroups: a cross-sectional analysis of the NHANES.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Health across the "Skills Spectrum": Occupational Skill, U.S. Citizenship Status, and the Immigrant Health Advantage.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Birthplace Implications of COVID-19 Mortality in Utah 2020-2023: A Cross-sectional Study.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- How loneliness mediates the association between migration status and health trajectories: Longitudinal evidence from Germany.Journal of migration and health · 2026Article
- Obesity-linked genes may promote prostate cancer among Asian and Hispanic immigrants to North America.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Insufficient: A scoping review of structural racism and intimate partner violence in US-based immigrant communities of color.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Immigrant Health Advantage? The Birth Outcomes of U.S.-Born Women in Mexico and Mexican-Origin Women in the United States.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- Allostatic Load Patterns by U.S. Citizenship Status and Length of U.S. Residency Among Adults, 2009-2018.AJPM focus · 2025Article
- Living with(out) Citizenship: The Impact of Naturalization on Mortality Risk among U.S. Immigrants.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- The Mental Health of Incarcerated Immigrants, Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2025Article
- Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours towards smoking among people with migration experience: a global scoping review.BMC public health · 2025Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite being newcomers, immigrants often exhibit better health relative to native-born populations in industrialized societies. We extend prior efforts to identify whether self-selection and/or protection explain this advantage. We examine migrant height and smoking levels just prior to immigration to test for self-selection; and we analyze smoking behavior since immigration, controlling for self-selection, to assess protection. We study individuals aged 20-49 from five major national origins: India, China, the Philippines, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. To assess self-selection, we compare migrants, interviewed in the National Health and Interview Surveys (NHIS), with nonmigrant peers in sending nations, interviewed in the World Health Surveys. To test for protection, we contrast migrants' changes in smoking since immigration with two counterfactuals: (1) rates that immigrants would have exhibited had they adopted the behavior of U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites in the NHIS (full "assimilation"); and (2) rates that migrants would have had if they had adopted the rates of nonmigrants in sending countries (no-migration scenario). We find statistically significant and substantial self-selection, particularly among men from both higher-skilled (Indians and Filipinos in height, Chinese in smoking) and lower-skilled (Mexican) undocumented pools. We also find significant and substantial protection in smoking among immigrant groups with stronger relative social capital (Mexicans and Dominicans).
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