Factors associated with receiving Pap tests among married immigrant women of Vietnamese origin in southern Taiwan

Comprehensive Comparisons of Family Health Between Families With One Immigrant Parent and Native Families in Taiwan: Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Mothers and children in families with one immigrant parent have been reported to be healthier than those in native families; however, the health of the fathers in these families has rarely been discussed in literature.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to comprehensively compare the health of all the family members between families with one immigrant parent (native fathers, immigrant mothers, and their children) and native families (native fathers, native mothers, and their children).

METHODS

We conducted a cohort study by using the Taiwan Maternal and Child Health Database to recruit live-born children and their parents from 2004 to 2016. Overall, we identified 90,670 fathers, 91,270 mothers, and 132,457 children in families with one immigrant parent and 1,666,775 fathers, 1,734,104 mothers, and 2,637,191 children in native families and followed up with them from 2004 to 2017. The outcomes comprised common physical and mental disorders, catastrophic illnesses, mortality, and child adversities and accidents. The covariates comprised the child's year of birth, parental age, low-income status, and physical or mental disorder status. Logistic regression was performed to compare the risks of the outcomes between families with one immigrant parent and native families.

RESULTS

The parents in families with one immigrant parent were more likely to be of low-income status and were older than the parents in native families. After adjusting for the covariates, fathers in families with one immigrant parent were found to have higher risks of physical and mental disorders, catastrophic illness, and mortality than fathers in native families. Conversely, mothers in families with one immigrant parent had lower risks of physical and mental disorders, catastrophic illness, and mortality than mothers in native families. Finally, the children in families with one immigrant parent generally had better physical and mental health but higher risks for leukemia, liver diseases, autism spectrum disorder, and road traffic accidents than children in native families.

CONCLUSIONS

The health status of the members of families with one immigrant parent was nonhomogeneous, and the poorer general health of fathers in such families suggests health inequalities in families with one immigrant parent.

A Scoping Review of the Health of East and Southeast Asian Female Marriage Migrants

The number of female marriage migrants in East and Southeast Asia has grown significantly over the past three decades. However, little is known about the health of this population. Following Arksey and O'Malley's (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8(1):19-32, 2005) framework, a scoping review of English language research databases was used to synthesize knowledge on the health of Asian marriage migrants. This will be used to inform recommendations for health care practice and research. Fifty-five eligible studies were included and presented using five identified categories-mental health, women's health and maternal-child health, public health, general well-being, and social challenges. Overall, studies consistently document that marriage migrants experience worse health outcomes, multiple barriers to health care services, and multilevel social challenges compared with the native population in the receiving countries.