Million Migrants Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Million Migrants study of healthcare and mortality outcomes in non-EU migrants and refugees to England: A linked population-based cohort study of 1.5 million migrants
IRAS ID
261618
Contact name
Robert Aldridge
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2019/03/04, UCL Data Protection Registration Number
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
The overall aim of this study is to describe hospital-based healthcare performance and mortality in non-European Union (EU) migrants and refugees in England. We also aim to describe how these health outcomes vary across different migrant groups and in comparison to the general population. We currently have a limited understanding of migrant healthcare usage and health status, despite 15.6% of people in England being born abroad. The reason why we have a poor understanding of healthcare utilisation in migrants is because there is no data in England linking migrant and refugee health service usage and subsequent health conditions and mortality outcomes.
Our study will overcome this issue and will create the first opportunity to generate a detailed understanding of the health needs of migrants. We will do this by combining the health records from 1.5 million non-EU migrants and refugees who underwent health screening and check before entering the UK to two other national datasets: (1) Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) - this records information about admissions, accident and emergency attendances and outpatient appointments at National Health System (NHS) hospitals in England and (2) Office of National Statistics (ONS) death records - this contains information on all deaths registered in England. We will be able to combine these datasets because each individual has a unique NHS number in each database.
Using this newly linked dataset, we will be able to profile health status and healthcare usage by identifying existing health conditions and examining hospital admissions, readmissions and duration of admission in non-EU migrants and refugees. We will also be able to examine overall mortality and morbidity related to specific health conditions. The study will look at a wide range of conditions thought to be important to the health needs of this group, but in particular will focus on health conditions that are considered to be avoidable due to established medical or public health interventions so that we can improve the health of this group in the future. We will also focus on mental and sexual and reproductive health as these were highlighted as important areas during our discussions with migrants whilst developing this application.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0816
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion