New Canadian immigrants face lower risk of stroke

The study was conducted by researchers of University of Toronto and published in the online journal ‘Neurology’ on February 3.

Healthy immigrant effect outweighs resettlement stresses—

It acknowledges the observation that the stresses involved in resettling in a foreign country are outweighed by the healthy immigrant effect, said a lead researcher of the study, Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. 

The study was conducted on 4 million residents of Ontario, Canada by taking into consideration the figures from 1st April, 1995 to 31st March, 2007. The figures of new immigrants involving their age, gender and residence were compared with long-term residents. The researchers look at 966,000 new immigrants to Ontario to compare the results with nearly 3.2 million long-term residents. All the participants were below the age of 65 years. 

It was found that as compared to long-term residents, new immigrants to Canada’s largest province Ontario had 30 percent less rate of strokes. Among the newcomers, there were 933 strokes after an average of six years; while for the same period, there were 5,283 strokes among long-term residents 

New immigrants made lesser visits to the doctor and were found to be having lower blood pressure. 

Speculated reasons for healthy immigrant effect-----
• People choosing to immigrate might be more ‘robust’;
• Many unhealthy immigrants may have been rejected during the medical exam;
• Immigrants with poor health might return to their native country.

Another possibility stated by Dr. Bradley Jacobs from Wright State University, Boonshoft, Dayton, Ohio in an accompanying editorial to the study states that the risk factors for stroke increase in frequency as new immigrants start adapting to the culture of the new place. 

Hence, it might be possible that the new immigrants might be in ‘immigration honeymoon’ (honeymoon period of good health), within the first five years of immigration.

More study needed---
Moreover, the study was conducted on people aged 16-65 years, and the younger population is always at lower risk of premature stroke, the researchers stated. So, a follow-up study was needed to find whether or not the risk of stroke increases in the latter years after immigration.