Health Reports
A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research
August 2020
The mental health of immigrants and refugees: Canadian evidence from a nationally linked database
by Edward Ng and Haozhen Zhang
Overall, immigrants are found to be healthier upon their arrival to Canada than the Canadian-born population—a phenomenon referred to as the healthy immigrant effect (HIE). However, this initial health advantage seems to disappear over time, partly because of stress and other integration challenges. Whether this HIE and its deterioration also apply to mental health is an area of ongoing research. The Canadian government’s Immigration Levels Plan stipulates that almost 1 million immigrants will be admitted to Canada between 2018 and 2020, and immigrants to Canada will increase from 7.5 million to more than 12 million by 2036 (almost 30% of the Canadian population). Because of the growth in Canada’s immigrant population, it is important to monitor the health—including mental health—of immigrants. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health, this study can provide a baseline for future studies on the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on immigrants’ mental health by immigrant category.
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Evaluating the psychometric properties of the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of Canadian children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years
by Matt D. Hoffmann, Justin J. Lang, Michelle D. Guerrero, Jameason D. Cameron, Gary S. Goldfield, Heather M. Orpana and Margaret de Groh
Mental health difficulties are prevalent among children and adolescents across the world. This is particularly important from a public health perspective because many psychological and behavioural disorders often begin in childhood. The World Health Organization has cited poor mental health as one of the leading causes of disability and economic burden. Between 1996 to 1997 and 2009 to 2010, the use of health care services for mental illness in Canada increased by 35% for children and 44% for adolescents. However, because not all children and adolescents with mental health difficulties access health care services, estimates based on administrative data from health care services may underestimate the prevalence of mental health difficulties in these populations. Therefore, identifying brief measures of mental health in children and adolescents that demonstrate evidence of validity is critical to informing screening, population-level surveillance and prevention strategies.
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