ArticleScientific reports2021
Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Do all migrants decline equally? Gender and occupational status differences in post-migration health in Italy.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- A European collaborative initiative to systematically map cancer risk by migration background: the Cancer RADAR project.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Using pension payments abroad to examine post-retirement migration and health among Finnish migrants in Sweden.Journal of migration and health · 2026Article
- Trends in incidence rates of acute myocardial infarction and stroke among immigrant groups in Norway, 1999-2019: the NCDNOR project.Open heart · 2025Article
- Integration gaps persist despite immigrants' value assimilation: evidence from the European Social Survey.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among Italian and immigrant residents: A longitudinal population-based study.Journal of migration and health · 2025Article
- Return Migration Selection and Its Impact on the Migrant Mortality Advantage: New Evidence Using French Pension Data.Demography · 2023Article
- Socio-Economic Factors Associated with Ethnic Disparities in SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Hospitalization.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality in Iraqi- and Swedish-born individuals in Sweden: the MEDIM cohort study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Finding "Zombies" in Your Database by Confirming Vital Status.Journal of registry management · 2023Article
- Case Identification and Characterization of Migrants with Dementia in the Lazio Region Using Health Administrative Data.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Article
- Comprehensive Comparisons of Family Health Between Families With One Immigrant Parent and Native Families in Taiwan: Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2022Article
- End-of-Life Care and Advanced Directives in Hispanic/Latinx Patients: Challenges and Solutions for the Practicing Oncologist.The oncologist · 2022Review
- Nationwide longitudinal population-based study on mortality in Italy by immigrant status.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Pre- and post-COVID-19 all-cause mortality of Japanese citizens versus foreign residents living in Japan, 2015-2021.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Mortality differences between migrants and Italians residing in Rome before, during, and in the aftermath of the great recession. A longitudinal cohort study from 2001 to 2015.BMC public health · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Compared with natives, immigrants have lower all-cause mortality rates, despite their lower socioeconomic status, an epidemiological paradox generally explained by the healthy migrant effect. Another hypothesis is the so-called salmon bias effect: "statistically immortal" subjects return to their country of origin when they expect to die shortly, but their deaths are not registered in the statistics of the country of residence. This underestimation of deaths determines an artificially low immigrant mortality rate. We aimed to estimate the potential salmon bias effect on differences in mortality rates between Italians and immigrants. We used a national cohort of all Italians registered in the 2011 census and followed up for mortality from 2012 to 2016. Mortality data were retrieved from the Causes of Death Register, which included all deaths occurring in the country and the Resident Population Register, which collects also the deaths occurring abroad. We assumed as a possible salmon bias event the death of an immigrant resident in Italy that died in his/her country of origin. Considering the deaths occurring in the country of origin, we observed an 18.1% increase in the overall mortality rates for immigrants and an increase of 23.7% in the age-standardized mortality rate. Mortality rates of immigrants resident in Italy, calculated without taking into account the deaths occurring in the country of origin, are certainly underestimated. However, the salmon bias only partly explains the difference in mortality rates between immigrants and Italians.
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