Abstract

Background:

Transnational immigration has increased since the 1950s. In countries such as the United States, immigrants now account for $>15\%$ of the population. Although differences in health between immigrants and nonimmigrants are well documented, it is unclear how environmental exposures contribute to these disparities.

Objectives:

We summarized current knowledge comparing immigrants’ and nonimmigrants’ exposure to and health effects of environmental exposures.

Methods:

We conducted a title and abstract review on articles identified through PubMed and selected those that assessed environmental exposures or health effects separately for immigrants and nonimmigrants. After a full text review, we extracted the main findings from eligible studies and categorized each article as exposure-focused, health-focused, or both. We also noted each study’s exposure of interest, study location, exposure and statistical methods, immigrant and comparison groups, and the intersecting socioeconomic characteristics controlled for.

Results:

We conducted a title and abstract review on 3,705 articles, a full text review on 84, and extracted findings from 50 studies. There were 43 studies that investigated exposure (e.g., metals, organic compounds, fine particulate matter, hazardous air pollutants) disparities, but only 12 studies that assessed health disparities (e.g., mortality, select morbidities). Multiple studies reported higher exposures in immigrants compared with nonimmigrants. Among immigrants, studies sometimes observed exposure disparities by country of origin and time since immigration. Of the 50 studies, 43 were conducted in North America.

Discussion:

The environmental health of immigrants remains an understudied area, especially outside of North America. Although most identified studies explored potential exposure disparities, few investigated subsequent differences in health effects. Future research should investigate environmental health disparities of immigrants, especially outside North America. Additional research gaps include the role of immigrants’ country of origin and time since immigration, as well as the combined effects of immigrant status with intersecting socioeconomic characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, income, and education attainment. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9855

中文翻译：

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移民与环境健康的交叉点：观察性人群暴露和流行病学研究的范围界定审查

摘要

背景：

自 20 世纪 50 年代以来，跨国移民不断增加。在美国等国家，移民现在占$>15\%$的人口。尽管移民和非移民之间的健康差异有据可查，但尚不清楚环境暴露如何造成这些差异。

目标：

我们总结了当前的知识，比较了移民和非移民的环境暴露情况及其对健康的影响。

方法：

我们对通过 PubMed 确定的文章进行了标题和摘要审查，并选择了那些分别评估移民和非移民的环境暴露或健康影响的文章。经过全文审查后，我们从符合条件的研究中提取了主要发现，并将每篇文章分类为以暴露为重点、以健康为重点或两者兼而有之。我们还注意到每项研究的兴趣暴露、研究地点、暴露和统计方法、移民和比较群体，以及控制的交叉社会经济特征。

结果：

我们对 3,705 篇文章进行了标题和摘要审查，对 84 篇文章进行了全文审查，并从 50 项研究中提取了结果。有 43 项研究调查了暴露（例如金属、有机化合物、细颗粒物、有害空气污染物）差异，但只有 12 项研究评估了健康差异（例如死亡率、特定发病率）。多项研究表明，与非移民相比，移民的暴露程度更高。在移民中，研究有时会观察到不同原籍国和移民后时间的暴露差异。在这 50 项研究中，有 43 项是在北美进行的。

讨论：

移民的环境健康仍然是一个未被充分研究的领域，特别是在北美以外的地区。尽管大多数已确定的研究探讨了潜在的暴露差异，但很少调查随后对健康影响的差异。未来的研究应该调查移民的环境健康差异，尤其是北美以外的移民。其他研究空白包括移民原籍国的作用和移民以来的时间，以及移民身份与交叉社会经济特征（例如种族/民族、收入和教育程度）的综合影响。https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9855