Cancer risk among individuals of migrant origin in Belgium during the 2000s – Evidence of migration as a ‘cancer risk transition’?
Section snippets
Author statement
Wanda M J Van Hemelrijck, Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Michael Rosskamp, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Freija Verdoodt, Writing – review & editing, Harlinde De Schutter, Writing – review & editing, Katrien Vanthomme, Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing – original draft
Data and study population
We used data from the 2001 population census that were individually linked to the Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS) and the standard cancer registration database for incidence years 2004–2013 from the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR). Census data contained socio-economic and demographic information about the study population on October 1st, 2001, whereas CBSS data pertained to vital status and emigration until December 31st, 2013. Nationwide information on cancer diagnoses came from the
Description of the study population
Women represent the majority of most Western-European groups (Belgian, Dutch and French origin) aged between 50 and 74 years, in contrast to the Italian, Turkish and Moroccan groups that were predominantly male (except for the more recent Moroccan immigrant group) (Table 2). The immigrant groups that had been residing in Belgium for more than 30 years had an average duration of stay between the range of 34 and 39 years whereas those arriving more recently had a duration of stay averaging
Discussion
This study aimed to test the notion of a ‘rapid cancer transition’ on colorectal, grouped infection-related, and non-cardia stomach cancer incidence for migrants of Turkish and Moroccan origin in Belgium while including Italians as a mixed group of labour migrants, and Dutch and French as a control group. Our findings are largely in line with the transition theory for men but are inconclusive for women. The Italian risk pattern furthermore did not follow that of any other origin group yet shows
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support for this work from Vrije Universiteit Brussel grant OZR2818 and Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek grant G043517N; and the support Kom op Tegen Kanker lends the Belgian Cancer Registry which facilitated the data linkage for this study.
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