Social and cultural factors in health of children of immigrants

Abstract

A study of 1-year-old West Indian children and their families, with a follow-up study when the children were aged 2 1/2-3 years, has shown the following: (1) The children at 1 year suffered more from respiratory disease and other minor illness and were more often hospitalized than non-West Indian 1-year-olds. (2) At 2 1/2 to 3 years these children seemed developmentally not to be fulfilling their potential. It is suggested that adverse environmental circumstances reinforced by cultural attitudes and patterns, many of which differ from those found in the indigenous population, play a substantial part in explaining these findings.