Citation

Chang R, Li C, Qi H, Zhang Y, Zhang J. Front. Pediatr. 2022; 10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fped.2022.810150

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the birth and health outcomes of children migrating with parents internationally and domestically, and to identify whether the healthy migration effect exist in migrant children.

METHODS: Five electronic databases were searched for cross-sectional, case-control, or cohort studies published from January 1, 2000 to January 30, 2021and written by English language, reporting the risk of health outcomes of migrant children (e.g., birth outcome, nutrition, physical health, mental health, death, and substance use) We excluded studies in which participants' age more than 18 years, or participants were forced migration due to armed conflict or disasters, or when the comparators were not native-born residents. Pooled odd ratio (OR) was calculated using random-effects models.

RESULTS: Our research identified 10,404 records, of which 98 studies were retrained for analysis. The majority of the included studies (89, 91%) focused on international migration and 9 (9%) on migration within country. Compared with native children, migrant children had increased risks of malnutrition [OR 1.26 (95% CI 1.11-1.44)], poor physical health [OR 1.34 (95% CI 1.11-1.61)], mental disorder [OR 1.24 (95% CI 1.00-1.52)], and death [OR 1.11 (95% CI 1.01-1.21)], while had a lower risk of adverse birth outcome [OR 0.92 (95% CI 0.87-0.97)]. The difference of substance use risk was not found between the two groups.

CONCLUSION: Migrant children had increased risk of adverse health outcomes. No obvious evidence was observed regarding healthy migration effect among migrant children. Actions are required to address the health inequity among these populations. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#myprospero, identifier: CRD42021214115. Copyright © 2022 Chang, Li, Qi, Zhang and Zhang.

Language: en

Keywords

United States; adolescent; Australia; Norway; Denmark; Spain; Canada; human; Finland; Sweden; mental health; migration; systematic review; child; infant; newborn; Germany; Review; New Zealand; India; Austria; autism; Israel; China; depression; schizophrenia; quality control; malnutrition; substance use; Italy; suicide attempt; Netherlands; meta-analysis; Taiwan; Portugal; child health; alcohol consumption; mental disease; data base; health status; Switzerland; cross-sectional study; diarrhea; asthma; respiratory tract disease; cohort analysis; clinical examination; underweight; case control study; gastrointestinal disease; low birth weight; DSM-IV; child death; Belgium; pneumonia; iron deficiency anemia; stillbirth; information retrieval; urticaria; congenital disorder; pregnancy outcome; premature labor; Cochrane Library; hemoglobin; gestational age; hemoglobin blood level; eczema; gastroenteritis; fetus death; neural tube defect; newborn death; adverse outcome; Medline; mouth disease; congenital heart malformation; allergic disease; Embase; migrant; tobacco use; perinatal death; childhood obesity; food allergy; cannabis use; ICD-9; Web of Science; dental caries; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; strengths and difficulties questionnaire; Scopus; health outcomes; birth outcomes; child nutrition; egg allergy; foreigner; healthy migration effect; high birth weight; International Obesity Task Force; migrant children; peanut allergy; sesame allergy