Does immigration to Canada prevent stroke, eh?

Abstract

The epidemiologic study of disease in immigrants holds promise for elucidating causes of and contributors to disease not readily evident in a general population. The study of immigrants who have lived in one region of the world for several years and then move to a different region may be useful in demonstrating the importance of certain chronic exposures. Comparing the risks of disease in an immigrant population to a population of long-term residents may reveal the importance of exposures that may be present in either the region of origin or immigration. While fraught with difficulty in sorting out what exactly constitutes important exposures, comparing immigrant populations to long-term resident populations may provide clues for the investigation of yet undiscovered risk factors. Several studies have demonstrated differences in overall mortality and stroke mortality among immigrants when compared to a native population. A recent study investigating disparity in mortality of immigrants to Canada demonstrated an overall lower age-standardized mortality …