Mortality of migrants from the former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel – a comparative study

Project team: Heiko Becher

External collaborators: Ari Paltiel, Jerusalem

This is an ongoing PhD project which started in 2005. After 1990 about one million jews migrated from the former Sowjet Union to Israel (15% of the total Israel population). The health status of these is determined by: (i) persisting impact on health status of the country of origin (ii) assimilation stress and eventually deteriorating socio-economic position in the host country.

Two hypothesis will be investigated: (1) migrants from the Russian federation do have a worse health status than the population of destination (measured as cause-specific mortality). (2) their cause-specific mortality shows different patterns than the native population. 

The study is based on data from the aforementioned AMOR-cohort with an extended follow-up until the end of 2005 and on the cohort of immigrants to Israel. Data on population and causes of death are centrally available at the Central Bureau of Statistics in Jerusalem. By means of a historical cohort design age and cause-specific mortality rates will be compared. The direct comparison of the results from Israel and Germany emphasizes different health risks. Disease groups with a higher risk among the migrants will be identified and perspectives for targeted prevention programs in the framework of Public Health will be provided.