Contexts of Reception and Refugee Health: Experiences of Foreign-born People in the United States and Belgium

Overview

Journal J Migr Health

Date 2025 Feb 3

PMID 39897431

Authors

Solveig A Cunningham

Hadewijch Vandenheede

Rebecca Jones-Antwi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Immigrants' health may differ with the characteristics of the place they resettle. We examined eating patterns and weight status across two differing environments - Atlanta, United States and Brussels, Belgium - collecting information on diet and health from a diverse sample of 111 refugees, asylum-seekers and other migrants. Analyses used descriptive statistics, multivariate regressions, and text analysis. People who had resettled in Atlanta reported higher weight categories than those in Belgium. In both locations, the most commonly adopted items were processed foods (71 % in Atlanta, 45 % in Brussels); many also listed adopting fruits and vegetables (31 % in Atlanta, 14 % in Brussels). Thus, changes in health-related behaviors after migration included both healthy and unhealthy components of the contexts of reception. Longer time since arrival was associated with lower odds of having adopted processed foods and higher odds of having adopted fresh foods, suggesting that dietary change is nuanced with immigrants' integration trajectories.

Citing Articles

Sorting it out: perceptions of foods among newly arrived adolescent refugees in the Southeastern USA.

Jones-Antwi R, Owens C, Hadley C, Cunningham S Public Health Nutr. 2024; 28(1):e11.

PMID: 39721804 PMC: 11822612. DOI: 10.1017/S1368980024002544.

References

Barnes D, Almasy N . Refugees' perceptions of healthy behaviors. J Immigr Health. 2005; 7(3):185-93. DOI: 10.1007/s10903-005-3675-8. View

Landale N, Thomas K, Van Hook J . The living arrangements of children of immigrants. Future Child. 2011; 21(1):43-70. PMC: 3241619. DOI: 10.1353/foc.2011.0003. View

Hunt L, Schneider S, Comer B . Should "acculturation" be a variable in health research? A critical review of research on US Hispanics. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 59(5):973-86. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.12.009. View

Van Hook J, Quiros S, Frisco M, Fikru E . It is Hard to Swim Upstream: Dietary Acculturation Among Mexican-Origin Children. Popul Res Policy Rev. 2016; 35(2):177-196. PMC: 4852553. DOI: 10.1007/s11113-015-9381-x. View

Oza-Frank R, Cunningham S . The weight of US residence among immigrants: a systematic review. Obes Rev. 2009; 11(4):271-80. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2009.00610.x. View

Vandenheede H, Willaert D, De Grande H, Simoens S, Vanroelen C . Mortality in adult immigrants in the 2000s in Belgium: a test of the 'healthy-migrant' and the 'migration-as-rapid-health-transition' hypotheses. Trop Med Int Health. 2015; 20(12):1832-45. DOI: 10.1111/tmi.12610. View

Singh G, Siahpush M . Ethnic-immigrant differentials in health behaviors, morbidity, and cause-specific mortality in the United States: an analysis of two national data bases. Hum Biol. 2002; 74(1):83-109. DOI: 10.1353/hub.2002.0011. View

Nabhani-Zeidan M, Naja F, Nasreddine L . Dietary intake and nutrition-related knowledge in a sample of Lebanese adolescents of contrasting socioeconomic status. Food Nutr Bull. 2011; 32(2):75-83. DOI: 10.1177/156482651103200201. View

Akresh I . Dietary assimilation and health among hispanic immigrants to the United States. J Health Soc Behav. 2008; 48(4):404-17. DOI: 10.1177/002214650704800405. View

10.

Mulasi-Pokhriyal U, Smith C . Assessing body image issues and body satisfaction/dissatisfaction among Hmong American children 9-18 years of age using mixed methodology. Body Image. 2010; 7(4):341-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2010.08.002. View

11.

Koya D, Egede L . Association between length of residence and cardiovascular disease risk factors among an ethnically diverse group of United States immigrants. J Gen Intern Med. 2007; 22(6):841-6. PMC: 2219871. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-007-0163-y. View

12.

Goel M, McCarthy E, Phillips R, Wee C . Obesity among US immigrant subgroups by duration of residence. JAMA. 2004; 292(23):2860-7. DOI: 10.1001/jama.292.23.2860. View

13.

Misra A, Ganda O . Migration and its impact on adiposity and type 2 diabetes. Nutrition. 2007; 23(9):696-708. DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2007.06.008. View

14.

Spallek J, Arnold M, Razum O, Juel K, Rey G, Deboosere P . Cancer mortality patterns among Turkish immigrants in four European countries and in Turkey. Eur J Epidemiol. 2012; 27(12):915-21. DOI: 10.1007/s10654-012-9746-y. View

15.

Brewer M, Kimbro R . Neighborhood context and immigrant children's physical activity. Soc Sci Med. 2014; 116:1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.022. View

16.

Le-Scherban F, Albrecht S, Osypuk T, Sanchez B, Diez Roux A . Neighborhood ethnic composition, spatial assimilation, and change in body mass index over time among Hispanic and Chinese immigrants: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Am J Public Health. 2014; 104(11):2138-46. PMC: 4192094. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302154. View

17.

Osypuk T, Diez Roux A, Hadley C, Kandula N . Are immigrant enclaves healthy places to live? The Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Soc Sci Med. 2009; 69(1):110-20. PMC: 2750873. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.04.010. View

18.

Hales C, Carroll M, Fryar C, Ogden C . Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2017-2018. NCHS Data Brief. 2020; (360):1-8. View

19.

Alidu L, Grunfeld E . A systematic review of acculturation, obesity and health behaviours among migrants to high-income countries. Psychol Health. 2017; 33(6):724-745. DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2017.1398327. View

20.

Commodore-Mensah Y, Ukonu N, Cooper L, Agyemang C, Himmelfarb C . The Association Between Acculturation and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Ghanaian and Nigerian-born African Immigrants in the United States: The Afro-Cardiac Study. J Immigr Minor Health. 2017; 20(5):1137-1146. DOI: 10.1007/s10903-017-0644-y. View