Population mobility and health: An overview of the relationships between movement and population health

Abstract

Approaching health outcomes in mobile populations on the basis of the framework described above can lead to greater synergy of effort and knowledge exchange. Health practitioners, service providers and others who work with mobile populations or cohorts have access to or generate information and understanding that may be of use to others who interact or deal with different mobile communities. The practical tools that will assist in improved information gathering and sharing, knowledge transfer and education will also be important in the development of programs and policies necessary to more effectively manage the health challenges associated with population mobility. Examples of this approach as currently practiced in travel medicine include the Geosentinal Network for Global Surveillance. Similar networks and nodes involving national immigration medical screening authorities could improve the analysis and distribution of relevant information. Such targeted research and analysis of issues of current interest will be useful in the broader understanding of both the individual and community health of migrant populations in a globalized and rapidly integrating world. Priorities for action related to the recognition of the growing importance of health and population mobility extend across several health sectors. They range from policy development to actual health care delivery. In concrete terms, policy activities include the recognition and consideration that a rapidly diversifying patient population may require reconfigured or redefined health program delivery services. Those services will progressively need to reflect the language, culture and history of the patients who, because of population mobility, are an evolving population. At the same time, improved recognition of the issues described in this paper can assist in the modernization of regional and international health governance and regulatory authority considerations. Many of the screening practices now employed by immigration receiving nations are dated in both their scientific and technical aspects. Finally, the appreciation of the growing impact of population mobility on health and diversity can assist in the development of training material, educational curricula and services that are targeted at mobile populations in both destinations and donor regions for migrants. That information will assist national and local health agencies and providers as they balance the health needs of a patient spectrum that spans international skilled workers, immigrants and more "at-risk" migrant populations such as refugees, asylum seekers, refugee claimants, and humanitarian movements. From an integrated and harmonized method of considering health and mobility, consistent approaches and strategies can be created, and these will eventually turn into best practices that can be widely applied.