Black immigrants to the US have lower stroke odds than US-born Black adults, with the lowest odds among recent arrivals, research suggests.
The study examined data from 64,717 people who identified as Black and took part in the US National Health Interview Survey between 2000 and 2018.
Researchers grouped respondents according to their age and place of birth.
The team from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago divided participants into two age groups: those aged 25 to 55 and those aged 56 to 74.
Participants were also grouped according to whether they were born in the US, Africa, or the Caribbean, South America and Central America.
Overall, 88.3 per cent of respondents were born in the US, eight per cent were born in the Caribbean, South America or Central America, and 3.7 per cent were born in Africa.
Stroke prevalence was 4.3 per cent among US-born participants, compared with 1.5 per cent among those born in the Caribbean, South America or Central America.
It was lowest among African-born respondents, at 0.8 per cent.
After researchers accounted for other factors that could have influenced the results, people born outside the US still had lower odds of stroke.
Those born in the Caribbean, South America or Central America had 56 per cent lower odds of stroke than US-born participants.
African-born participants had 61 per cent lower odds.
The lowest odds were found among people who had moved to the US less than 15 years before completing the survey. Their odds of stroke were 73 per cent lower than those of US-born respondents.
Alejandro Vargas, from Rush University Medical Center, said the findings could reflect what researchers call the healthy immigrant effect.
The term describes the observation that some recent immigrant populations have better health outcomes than people born in the country to which they moved.
“Our study suggests a healthy immigrant effect in which recent immigrants are healthier than the general population,” Vargas said in a statement.
“This may be due to differences in stroke risk factors such as high blood pressure or stress.
“Grouping all racial and ethnic populations together can hide important health trends and hinder efforts to create targeted interventions.”
