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Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population
This study identified risk factors for health and access to healthcare services of migrants during their journey across Mexico to the United States. Data were collected in shelters located in Monterrey, the largest city of northeastern Mexico, through a basic clinical examination and a survey comple...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4526788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26301213 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00191 |
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author | Stoesslé, Philippe González-Salazar, Francisco Santos-Guzmán, Jesús Sánchez-González, Nydia |
author_facet | Stoesslé, Philippe González-Salazar, Francisco Santos-Guzmán, Jesús Sánchez-González, Nydia |
author_sort | Stoesslé, Philippe |
collection | PubMed |
description | This study identified risk factors for health and access to healthcare services of migrants during their journey across Mexico to the United States. Data were collected in shelters located in Monterrey, the largest city of northeastern Mexico, through a basic clinical examination and a survey completed by 75 migrants; 92% of them were undocumented Central Americans. During their transit, they are at a high risk of contracting, developing, and transmitting diseases. The need of working to survive affects health-seeking behavior and a constant fear of being traced keeps migrants away from public health services, which delays diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Negligent lifestyles, such as smoking, drinking (31.8% of men and 11.1% of women), and drug abuse (13% of men and 11% of women), were found. Regarding tuberculosis (TB), undocumented migrants are usually not screened, even though they come from countries with a high TB burden. Besides, they might be overexposed to TB because of their living conditions in overcrowded places with deficient hygiene, protection, and malnutrition (54.7% of the sample). Possible comorbidities like acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; 4%) and diabetes (2.7%, but probably under-diagnosed) were referred. Migrants have little TB knowledge, which is independent of their level of education or a previous experience of deportation. About one-third of the migrants were totally unfamiliar with TB-related symptoms, while 36% had correct knowledge of basic TB symptoms. We conclude that a shortage of information on the highly vulnerable migratory population combined with a lack of social support and health education among migrants may play a significant role in the spread of communicable diseases. We recommend that health authorities address this urgent, binational, public health concern in order to prevent outbreaks of emerging infections. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4526788 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45267882015-08-21 Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population Stoesslé, Philippe González-Salazar, Francisco Santos-Guzmán, Jesús Sánchez-González, Nydia Front Public Health Public Health This study identified risk factors for health and access to healthcare services of migrants during their journey across Mexico to the United States. Data were collected in shelters located in Monterrey, the largest city of northeastern Mexico, through a basic clinical examination and a survey completed by 75 migrants; 92% of them were undocumented Central Americans. During their transit, they are at a high risk of contracting, developing, and transmitting diseases. The need of working to survive affects health-seeking behavior and a constant fear of being traced keeps migrants away from public health services, which delays diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Negligent lifestyles, such as smoking, drinking (31.8% of men and 11.1% of women), and drug abuse (13% of men and 11% of women), were found. Regarding tuberculosis (TB), undocumented migrants are usually not screened, even though they come from countries with a high TB burden. Besides, they might be overexposed to TB because of their living conditions in overcrowded places with deficient hygiene, protection, and malnutrition (54.7% of the sample). Possible comorbidities like acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; 4%) and diabetes (2.7%, but probably under-diagnosed) were referred. Migrants have little TB knowledge, which is independent of their level of education or a previous experience of deportation. About one-third of the migrants were totally unfamiliar with TB-related symptoms, while 36% had correct knowledge of basic TB symptoms. We conclude that a shortage of information on the highly vulnerable migratory population combined with a lack of social support and health education among migrants may play a significant role in the spread of communicable diseases. We recommend that health authorities address this urgent, binational, public health concern in order to prevent outbreaks of emerging infections. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4526788/ /pubmed/26301213 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00191 Text en Copyright © 2015 Stoesslé, González-Salazar, Santos-Guzmán and Sánchez-González. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Stoesslé, Philippe González-Salazar, Francisco Santos-Guzmán, Jesús Sánchez-González, Nydia Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title | Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title_full | Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title_fullStr | Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title_full_unstemmed | Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title_short | Risk Factors and Current Health-Seeking Patterns of Migrants in Northeastern Mexico: Healthcare Needs for a Socially Vulnerable Population |
title_sort | risk factors and current health-seeking patterns of migrants in northeastern mexico: healthcare needs for a socially vulnerable population |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4526788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26301213 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00191 |
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