Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy

Abstract Compared with natives, immigrants have lower all-cause mortality rates, despite their lower socioeconomic status, an epidemiological paradox generally explained by the healthy migrant effect. Another hypothesis is the so-called salmon bias effect: “statistically immortal” subjects return to...

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Autores principales:	Anteo Di Napoli, Alessandra Rossi, Gianfranco Alicandro, Martina Ventura, Luisa Frova, Alessio Petrelli
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/27ee8a0bcec94e5d964c25168fdac3e8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:27ee8a0bcec94e5d964c25168fdac3e82021-12-02T14:30:33ZSalmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy10.1038/s41598-021-87522-22045-2322https://doaj.org/article/27ee8a0bcec94e5d964c25168fdac3e82021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87522-2https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Compared with natives, immigrants have lower all-cause mortality rates, despite their lower socioeconomic status, an epidemiological paradox generally explained by the healthy migrant effect. Another hypothesis is the so-called salmon bias effect: “statistically immortal” subjects return to their country of origin when they expect to die shortly, but their deaths are not registered in the statistics of the country of residence. This underestimation of deaths determines an artificially low immigrant mortality rate. We aimed to estimate the potential salmon bias effect on differences in mortality rates between Italians and immigrants. We used a national cohort of all Italians registered in the 2011 census and followed up for mortality from 2012 to 2016. Mortality data were retrieved from the Causes of Death Register, which included all deaths occurring in the country and the Resident Population Register, which collects also the deaths occurring abroad. We assumed as a possible salmon bias event the death of an immigrant resident in Italy that died in his/her country of origin. Considering the deaths occurring in the country of origin, we observed an 18.1% increase in the overall mortality rates for immigrants and an increase of 23.7% in the age-standardized mortality rate. Mortality rates of immigrants resident in Italy, calculated without taking into account the deaths occurring in the country of origin, are certainly underestimated. However, the salmon bias only partly explains the difference in mortality rates between immigrants and Italians.Anteo Di NapoliAlessandra RossiGianfranco AlicandroMartina VenturaLuisa FrovaAlessio PetrelliNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Anteo Di Napoli Alessandra Rossi Gianfranco Alicandro Martina Ventura Luisa Frova Alessio Petrelli Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
description	Abstract Compared with natives, immigrants have lower all-cause mortality rates, despite their lower socioeconomic status, an epidemiological paradox generally explained by the healthy migrant effect. Another hypothesis is the so-called salmon bias effect: “statistically immortal” subjects return to their country of origin when they expect to die shortly, but their deaths are not registered in the statistics of the country of residence. This underestimation of deaths determines an artificially low immigrant mortality rate. We aimed to estimate the potential salmon bias effect on differences in mortality rates between Italians and immigrants. We used a national cohort of all Italians registered in the 2011 census and followed up for mortality from 2012 to 2016. Mortality data were retrieved from the Causes of Death Register, which included all deaths occurring in the country and the Resident Population Register, which collects also the deaths occurring abroad. We assumed as a possible salmon bias event the death of an immigrant resident in Italy that died in his/her country of origin. Considering the deaths occurring in the country of origin, we observed an 18.1% increase in the overall mortality rates for immigrants and an increase of 23.7% in the age-standardized mortality rate. Mortality rates of immigrants resident in Italy, calculated without taking into account the deaths occurring in the country of origin, are certainly underestimated. However, the salmon bias only partly explains the difference in mortality rates between immigrants and Italians.
format	article
author	Anteo Di Napoli Alessandra Rossi Gianfranco Alicandro Martina Ventura Luisa Frova Alessio Petrelli
author_facet	Anteo Di Napoli Alessandra Rossi Gianfranco Alicandro Martina Ventura Luisa Frova Alessio Petrelli
author_sort	Anteo Di Napoli
title	Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
title_short	Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
title_full	Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
title_fullStr	Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
title_full_unstemmed	Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy
title_sort	salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in italy
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/27ee8a0bcec94e5d964c25168fdac3e8
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Salmon bias effect as hypothesis of the lower mortality rates among immigrants in Italy

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