Individuals with depressive and alcohol use disorders have an increased mortality risk comparable with many chronic somatic conditions, that is only partly attributable to differences in sociodemographic, somatic health status and hazardous health behaviour.

The risk of mental disorders varies significantly across migrant groups and disorders and is generally lower among immigrants than native Finns.

BackgroundMigrant children have specific health needs, and may face difficulties in accessing health care, but not enough is known about their health service use. This study aims to describe patterns of use of health services of international migrant children and differences to respective native populations.MethodsElectronic databases PubMed and Web of Science, references of identified publications, and websites of relevant international agencies were searched. We included observational studies published between 2006 and 2016 that reported use of formal health services by migrant children (0–18 years), including first and second generation migrants. Data on study characteristics, study theme, main outcome and study quality were extracted.ResultsOne hundred seven full texts were included in the review. Of the studies that reported comparable outcomes, half (50%) indicated less use of healthcare by migrants compared with non-migrants; 25% reported no difference, 18% reported greater use, and 7% did not report this outcome. There was variation by theme, so that the proportion of conclusions “less use” was most common in the categories “general access to care”, “primary care” and “oral health”, whereas in the use of emergency rooms or hospitalisations, the most common conclusion was “greater use”.ConclusionsMigrant children appear to use different types of healthcare services less than native populations, with the exception of emergency and hospital services.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO systematic review registration number: CRD42016039876.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12992-018-0370-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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This study highlights major inequalities in access to a diagnosis and treatment of depression. Unlike the prevalence of depression, where contextual factors have shown to have less importance, a significant proportion of the variance in access to depression care was explained by country-level income.

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The mortality risk of migrants is lower than of people who were born in Finland. Possible explanations include selection and differences in substance use and other health behaviour.