Health and chronic conditions
Those who migrate to seek asylum or through other refugee routes tend to report worse health outcomes than those who are UK born. This is in contrast to people who migrate for employment, family and study reasons who tend to report better health than the UK born population.
Refugees and asylum seekers may arrive in the UK with undiagnosed or poorly controlled chronic health conditions due to challenges with accessing healthcare or treatment in their home countries or during their journey.
Refugees and asylum seekers’ overall health and risk of developing chronic health conditions will often reflect the levels of health conditions and the rates of key risk factors, like tobacco use or dietary nutrition, in their home country. Nutritional deficiencies, for example, are a key risk factor for refugees arriving from countries where there is food insecurity.
While smoking rates will vary by country, overall, studies show that men born outside the UK are more likely to smoke than UK born men (the opposite is true for women), putting them at higher risk of smoking related diseases.
The Gloucestershire Healthy Lifestyles service can support people to quit smoking, eat more healthily, undertake more exercise, and to reduce excess and harmful use of alcohol or drugs. By improving these health behaviours, refugees and those seeking asylum could prevent the development of, or reduce the impacts of, many chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.