The self-reported number of workdays missed due to injury or illness, or sick days, is a reliable measure of health among working-aged adults. Although sick days is a relatively underexplored health-related outcome in migration studies, it can provide a multidimensional understanding of immigrant wellbeing and integration. Current understandings of the association between migration status and sick days are limited for two reasons. First, in the United States, few nationally representative surveys collect migration status information. Second, researchers lack consensus on the most reliable approach for assigning migration status. We use the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine sick days and draw comparisons between two methods for assigning migration status—a logical approach and a survey approach. The logical method assigns migration status to foreign-born respondents based on characteristics such as government employment or welfare receipt, while the survey approach relies on self-reported survey responses. Sick days among immigrants was correlated with and predicted by other health conditions available in the SIPP. Comparisons of sick days by migration status vary based on migration assignment approach. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) reported more sick days than non-LPRs and appear less healthy when migration status is assigned using the logical approach. The logical approach also produced a gap in sick days between LPRs and non-LPRs that is not replicated in the survey approach. The results demonstrate that if migration status is not measured directly in the data, interpretation of migration status effects should proceed cautiously.

中文翻译：

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病假：美国外国出生人口的逻辑与调查识别

自我报告的因受伤或疾病或病假而缺勤的工作日数是衡量工作年龄成年人健康状况的可靠指标。尽管病假是移民研究中相对未充分探索的健康相关结果，但它可以提供对移民福祉和融合的多维理解。由于两个原因，目前对移民身份与病假之间关系的理解有限。首先，在美国，很少有具有全国代表性的调查收集移民身份信息。其次，研究人员对分配迁移状态的最可靠方法缺乏共识。我们使用 2008 年收入和计划参与调查 (SIPP) 来检查病假，并比较两种分配移民身份的方法——逻辑方法和调查方法。逻辑方法根据政府就业或福利收入等特征将移民身份分配给外国出生的受访者，而调查方法则依赖于自我报告的调查答复。移民中的病假天数与 SIPP 中可用的其他健康状况相关并由其预测。不同迁移状态对病假天数的比较因迁移分配方法而异。合法永久居民 (LPR) 报告的病假天数比非 LPR 多，并且在使用逻辑方法分配移民身份时看起来不太健康。逻辑方法还产生了 LPR 和非 LPR 之间的病假天数差距，这在调查方法中没有复制。结果表明，如果迁移状态不直接在数据中测量，迁移状态影响的解释应谨慎进行。