In order to study how internal migration effects the evaluation of one's health, information was collected by a postal questionnaire from a total of 75,750 women during 1991-1992 (34-49 years) and 1995-1996 (45-69 years). The women were selected at random from the Norwegian National Register. All the women were sent a questionnaire and one reminder. The overall response rate was 56.5%, decreasing with increasing age. Women who had lived in the same area since childhood were considered "non-movers", while those who lived in a different area to where they grew up were classified as "internal movers". We found that among people who were brought up and still lived in northern Norway there was a higher rate of their reporting poor or very poor health than among "non-movers" in southern Norway. The adjusted relative rate was 1.39 (1.29-1.49). The reason for the higher rates could be semantic differences, more actual illness, or the effect of selective migration of healthy individuals out of the region of northern Norway.
Notes
Comment In: Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 1998 Nov 20;118(28):44149889621