La sous-mortalité des immigrés adultes en Belgique : une réalité attestée par les recensements et les registres

There have been consistent reports in several countries that some adult migrant populations tend to have lower mortality than the host population despite a lower socio-economic status. The most frequently proposed hypotheses for this paradox are selection mechanisms, dietary intake variations and cultural or life-style factors. Belgium is well suited to explore these explanations thanks to the presence of large migrant communities and the existence of a national population register. The present analysis compares cause specific mortality patterns for the most important migrant communities (Italian, Spanish, Moroccan and Turk) to migrants from neighbouring countries with a similar life style and dietary intake as the Belgian population. Cause specific mortality is an important clue to explain the diversity in health outcomes. The mortality patterns of migrant communities and the native Belgian population have been analysed by decomposition techniques and multinomial logistic regressions. The study of cause specific mortality by sub-populations is useful to identify factors that make some populations healthier than others. The reasons for the paradox appear to be multifactorial, resulting from a combination of life style, dietary intake variations and the health infrastructure of the host country.