The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on July 21, 2005
The European Journal of Public Health 2005 15(5):511-517; doi:10.1093/eurpub/cki026
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Health Inequalities |
Mortality among 723 948 foreign- and native-born Swedes 1970–1999
Björn Albin1, Katarina Hjelm2, Jan Ekberg3 and Sölve Elmståhl4
1 School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Växjö University, Växjö, Sweden
2 Department of Community Medicine, University of Lund and School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Växjö University, Växjö, Sweden
3 School of Management and Economics, Växjö University, Växjö, Sweden
4 Department of Community Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
Correspondence: Björn Albin, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Växjö University, S-351 95 Växjö, Sweden, tel: +46 470 708304 or +46 708 673794, fax: +46 470 36310, e-mail: bjorn.albin{at}ivosa.vxu.se
Background: Mortality in a population is regarded as an accurate and valid measure of the population's health. There are a few international studies, predominantly cross-sectional, of mortality among all foreign-born compared with an indigenous population, and the results have varied. No Swedish longitudinal study describing and analysing mortality data was found in a literature review. Methods: This study describes and analyses the differences in mortality between foreign-born persons and native Swedes during the period 1970–1999, based on data from Statistics Sweden and the National Board of Health and Welfare. The database consisted of 723 948 persons, 361 974 foreign-born living in Sweden in 1970, aged 
16 years, and 361 974 Swedish controls matched for age, sex, occupation and type of employment, living in the same county in 1970. Results: The results showed increased mortality for foreign-born persons compared with the Swedish controls [odds ratio (OR) 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–1.08]. Persons who had migrated ‘late’ (1941–1970) to Sweden were 2.5 years younger at time of death than controls. In relation to country of birth, the highest risk odds were for men born in Finland (OR 1.21), Denmark (OR 1.11) and Norway/Iceland (OR 1.074). Age cohorts of foreign-born persons born between 1901 and 1920 had higher mortality at age 55–69 years than cohorts born between 1921 and 1944. Conclusions: Migrants had higher mortality than the native population, and migration may be a risk factor for health; therefore, this seems to be an important factor to consider when studying mortality and health.
Keywords: epidemiology, longitudinal study, mortality, public health, Sweden, transients and migrants
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