Growth, Nutritional Status and Infant Mortality of Turkish Immigrant Preschool Children

Abstract

Turkish preschool children in Stockholm, Sweden, 59 born 1979, 32 born 1976 and 43 siblings of preschool age have been studied as to nutritional status including anthropometric parameters, dental caries, haemoglobin level and bacteriological and parasitological findings in faeces and as to deaths of siblings in Turkey and Sweden. Growth was very close to that of the Swedish standard. Two of three children with slightly subnormal growth had had recent direct or indirect contact with the home country. There were no signs of nutritional deficiency but dental caries was common. There was little anaemia. One case of shigellosis was found. Mortality of infancy was significantly reduced after immigration. The group had made a successful nutritional adaptation in Sweden considering their origin in regions of Turkey with a high prevalence of growth failure. Health care in this group should aim at prevention of diarrhoeal disease on visits to Turkey as well as of dental caries.

Ethnicity, childhood environment and atopic disorder

“…Studies of newly resettled children from Chile and the Middle East have demonstrated a similar pattern of intestinal parasites [ 26]. Anthropometric studies of children with parents born in Turkey and Chile in Sweden have shown a pattern of growth during early childhood that is remarkably similar to that of other children in Swedish society, which makes it unlikely that chronic infectious conditions are common during early childhood in either group [ 26–28]. Statistics from Swedish child health care demonstrate that children in immigrant‐dominated areas are immunized as much as other children in the Swedish society; 98–99% of the Swedish children follow the routine immunization schedule [ 29].…”

Migration and atopic disorder in Swedish conscripts

“…The immigrants from the Mediterranean who gave birth in Sweden in the mid‐1970s were dominated by poorly educated workers from the countryside of east Turkey who kept strong ties with their home villages. Children in these families often spent considerable time in the countries of birth of their parents during early childhood, and during such stays the children were exposed to infections that often stunted their growth temporarily ( 22). Comparative studies of children in Sweden and Estonia have suggested that a change in the intestinal microflora is an important cause for the increasing prevalence of atopic disorder in Sweden ( 23).…”

Immigrant consumption of sickness benefits in Sweden, 1982–1991

“…The one exception is a smaller study of Stockholm County, which shows a higher mortality below 65 years of age for immigrants (Diderichsen 1989). Studies of perinatal and infant mortality show small differences between immigrants and natives (Aurelius and Ryde-Blomqvist 1978;Mjönes and Koctürk 1986).…”