Health inequality gap in inmigrant versus local children in Chile

Abstract

Introduction: Children and young international migrants face different health challenges compared with the local population, particularly if they live in insecure environments or adverse social conditions. This study seeks to identify gaps in health outcomes of children between immigrant and local population in Chile.

Methods: This study analyses data from three sources: (i) Born in Chile: Electronic records of antenatal visits from all municipal antenatal clinics of Recoleta in 2012; (ii) Growing up in Chile: Population survey “National Socioeconomic Characterization” (CASEN) from 2013 and (iii) Getting sick in Chile: Data of all hospital discharges in 2012, provided by the department of statistics and health information (DEIS) of the Ministry of Health.

Results: (I) Born in Chile: Immigrants more frequently have psychosocial risk (62.3% vs 50.1% in Chileans) and enter later into the program (63.1% vs 33.4% enter later than 14 weeks of pregnancy). All birth outcomes were better among immigrants (e.g. caesarean sections rates: 24.2% immigrants vs % Chileans). (ii) Growing up in Chile: A higher proportion of migrant children is outside the school system and lives in multidimensional
poverty (40% immigrants vs 23.2% Chileans). (iii) Getting sick in Chile: Injuries and other
external causes were more frequent cause of hospitalisation among migrants (23.6%) than the local population (16.7%) aged between 7 and 14 years.

Conclusions: Addressing the needs of the children in Chile, regardless of their immigration status, is an ethical, legal and moral imperative.