Migrants´ Healthcare Utilization in Europe: A Comprehensive Review of Emergency Room Utilization and Hospitalization

Abstract

There is an increasing number of migrants living in European. The increasing percentage of migrant population requires the assessment of their health needs and health service utilization to allow potential to guide appropriate programs and policies. This study aims to analyze the differences in healthcare service utilization, particularly regarding emergency room contacts and hospital admissions, by first-generation migrants compared to native residents in European countries in the last decade. Original publications in English language were identified by a systematic PubMed search. Their relevance was judged based on the abstracts, whereas further searches were guided by the references of the selected articles. We considered studies conducted in the EU countries and published in the last ten years, investigating emergency use and hospitalization rates in adult first-generation migrants. We excluded studies focusing on illegal migrants and asylum seekers or on a single gender. The final number of studies included was ten. The results of our study highlighted a lack of data regarding migrant healthcare utilization in Europe. Furthermore, our review underlines the yet unresolved problems of comparability between studies, due to discrepancies in terminology and registration between countries as well as over time. The studies considered in this review have found higher, equal and lower emergency room use and higher or equal hospitalization rates for migrants compared to non-migrants.