Abstract
Previous research has suggested that poor health is associated with reduced migration; this knowledge stems from models based on past censuses, or longitudinal studies which imply that the factors influencing migration are the same between those in good and poor health. This paper addresses these issues by utilising health-stratified analyses on the 2011 Census Individual Secure Sample for England and Wales. Multilevel models predict the odds of moving for working age adults, controlling for key predictors of migration, estimating the effect of health status on the odds of moving and the destination-specific variance in migration. We find that those in poor health are less likely to move, after controlling for individual level characteristics. In contrast with expectations, economic inactivity, marriage and being in African, Caribbean, Black, Other or Mixed ethnic groups were not significant predictors of migration among the unhealthy sample, but were for the healthy sample. We conclude that migration is health-selective and propose implications for understanding area level concentrations of poor health in England and Wales.
Highlights
Measures of self-rated health from population censuses serve as convenient indicators of health needs as they are predictors of morbidity (Tamayo-Fonseca et al, 2015) and mortality (Gana et al, 2016)
We examine the relationship between health status and migration propensity
There is an association between health status and migration propensity.The odds ratio (OR) row displays the odds for the sample with an limiting long term illness (LLTI) over the odds for the sample without an LLTI; those with an LLTI are less likely to have moved than those in good health and more likely to be stayers, this association is significant at the 0.99 level
Summary
Measures of self-rated health from population censuses serve as convenient indicators of health needs as they are predictors of morbidity (Tamayo-Fonseca et al, 2015) and mortality (Gana et al, 2016). It is widely held that rates of poor health in a given area can be explained by the characteristics of individuals living in them (composition) and place-specific conditions such as regional patterns in access to healthcare (context; Smith and Easterlow, 2005). Neither of these adequately clarify the role of migration flows (and the role of immobility) and their effect on area rates of poor health (Brimblecombe et al, 1999; Norman et al, 2005; Smith and Easterlow, 2005). There is a need for further investigation of the relationships between health and migration
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