Abstract
Objective. The incidence of schizophrenia among Surinamese immigrants to the Netherlands is high. The authors tested Odegaard's hypothesis that this phenomenon is explained by selective migration.
Method: The authors imagined that migration from Surinam to the Netherlands subsumed the entire population of Surinam and not solely individuals at risk for schizophrenia, They compared the risk of a first admission to a Dutch mental hospital for schizophrenia from 1983 to 1992 for Surinamese-born immigrants to the risk for Dutch-born individuals, using the Surinamese-born population in the Netherlands and the population of Surinam combined as the denominator for the immigrants.
Results: The age- and sex-adjusted relative risk of schizophrenia for the Surinamese-born immigrants was 1.46.
Conclusions: Selective migration cannot solely explain the higher incidence of schizophrenia in Surinamese immigrants to the Netherlands.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 669-671 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | American Journal of Psychiatry |
| Volume | 159 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr-2002 |
| Event | 8th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research - , Canada Duration: 28-Apr-2001 → 2-May-2001 |