Health and mortality differentials among Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodian migrants in Thailand

1. Health and mortality differentials among Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodian migrants in Thailand Nucharee Srivirojana and Sureeporn Punpuing, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand References • Annual Epidemiological Surveillance Report 1998- 2006, Ministry of Public Health • Vital registration 2004-2008, Ministry of Interior Acknowledgement The authors are gratefully acknowledge kind support from the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D Program from the Royal Thai Government and IPSR in providing scholarship and funding support for conducting this study. Introduction Fig. 2: Different in cause of death among Myanmar, Laos and Cambodian migrants in Thailand during 2004-2008 Fig.4: Comparison major surveillance causes of sickness among Myanmar, Laos and Cambodian migrants and native Thai in 2006 Fig.6: Pattern of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodian migrants death in Thailand by age groups during 2004-2008 Accidents also happen more on Myanmar and Cambodian labour force age migrants rather than Laos migrants while most of the elderly migrants die due to non-infectious disease except Cambodian elderly migrants who die more due to infectious diseases and accident (figure 7). Undocumented migrants from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are marginalized. Working in 3D jobs, living in unhygienic and poor sanitary condition, lack of knowledge, limit access to health services and mobility condition intensify migrant’s vulnerability to health problems and mortality. Discussion & Recommendation • Myanmar and Cambodian migrants are still vulnerable to health and mortality problem when compare with Laos migrants and native Thai. • Differences in sex, age and nationalities also influence health and mortality differentials among these migrants. • Health services and preventive strategies, should be developed as appropriate for sex, age, and nationalities of the migrants to counter accidents and occupational health hazard especially among labour force agemale migrants from Myanmar and Cambodia. • More effort to reduce death from maternal and child health, and infectious disease among female migrants should be enhanced. Objective To find out health and mortality differential among Myanmar, Laos and Cambodian migrants in Thailand. Source: Vital registration 2004-2008, Ministry of Interior Source: Annual Epidemiological Surveillance Report 1998-2006, Ministry of Public Health Source: Vital registration 2004-2008, Ministry of Interior Data & Method Laos and Cambodian migrants have the same pattern on major cause of death due to non-infectious diseases while accident is prominent among Myanmar migrants (figure 2). Pattern of migrants death by age group among the three nationalities are quite similar. However, Cambodian migrant orphans and young adults die more during age 0-4 and 15-24 year old. Pattern of Laos migrant death change to become higher than the other two nationalities after age 49 year old. Acute diarrhea, pyrexia of unknown origin and pneumonia are major causes of sickness among these three nationalities. Malaria is only a major concern among Myanmar and Cambodian migrants while sexual transmitted diseases is outstanding among Laos migrants (figure 4). Data from annual epidemiological surveillance reports, Ministry of Public Health, (1998- 2006) and 2,858 migrant death cases from vital registration statistics, Ministry of Interior, (2004-2008) were analyzed by using descriptive and bi-variate analyses Fig.3: Comparison different cause of death between male and female migrants in 2004-2008 Fig.5: Comparison major surveillance causes of death among Myanmar, Laos and Cambodian migrants and native Thai in 2006 Fig.7: Different in cause of death among orphan, labour force age and elderly migrants in Thailand during 2004-2008 Results Figure 1 Case fatality rate of Myanmar, Laos, Cambodian migrants and native Thai during 1998 to 2006 Source: Vital registration 2004-2008, Ministry of Interior Myanmar and Laos male migrants die more due to accident than female migrants while majority of Cambodian male migrants die due to murder and suicide. Infectious diseases stand out as a major cause of death for female migrants among the three nationalities. (figure 3). Source: Vital registration 2004-2008, Ministry of Interior Source: Annual Epidemiological Surveillance Report 1998-2006, Ministry of Public Health Source: Annual Epidemiological Surveillance Report 1998-2006, Ministry of Public Health Myanmar and Cambodian orphan migrants die from non-infectious such as maternal and child health while Laos orphan migrants die more from accident (figure 7). Malaria, pneumonia and tuberculosis are major causes of death among Myanmar and Cambodian migrants while major concern among Laos migrants is only pneumonia. (figure 5). Myanmar and Cambodian migrants tend to have higher case fatality rate when compare with Laos migrants and native Thai (figure 1). PAA 2009, 30 April - 2 May 2009, Detroit, Michigan, USA