Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:38:42.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dimensions of internal migration and their relationship to blood pressure in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2019

Chantel F. Pheiffer Open the ORCID record for Chantel F. Pheiffer [Opens in a new window] ,
Stephen T. McGarvey ,
Carren Ginsburg ,
Mark Collinson ,
F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé ,
Stephen Tollman  and
Michael J. White
Chantel F. Pheiffer*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Stephen T. McGarvey
Affiliation:
International Health Institute, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Carren Ginsburg
Affiliation:
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, South Africa
Mark Collinson
Affiliation:
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, South Africa
F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé
Affiliation:
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, South Africa
Stephen Tollman
Affiliation:
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, South Africa
Michael J. White
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: chantel_pheiffer@brown.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hypertension prevalence is on the rise in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like South Africa, and migration and its concomitant urbanization are often considered to be associated with this rise. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between blood pressure (BP) and internal migration – a highly prevalent population process in LMICs. This study employed data for a group of 194 adult men and women from an original pilot dataset drawn from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in north-east South Africa conducted in 2012. Migrants in the sample were identified, tracked and interviewed. The relationship between BP and migration distance and the number of months an individual spent away from his/her home village was estimated using robust OLS regression, controlling for a series of socioeconomic, health and behavioural characteristics. It was found that migrants who moved a longer distance and for longer durations had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures compared with shorter-term migrants and those who remained nearby or in their home village. These associations remained robust and statistically significant when adjusting for measures of socioeconomic conditions, as well as body mass index and the number of meals consumed per day. Migration, both in terms of distance and time away, explained significant variation in the blood pressure of migrants in this typical South African context. The findings suggest the need for further studies of the nutritional and psycho-social factors associated with geographic mobility that may be important to understand rising hypertension levels in LMICs.

Keywords

Migration and social mobilityPopulation HealthDemography
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 51 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 827 - 842
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addo, J, Smeeth, L and Leon, DA (2007) Hypertension in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review. Hypertension 50(6), 1012–1018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowen, L, Ebrahim, S, De Stavola, B, Ness, A, Kinra, S, Bharathi, AV et al. (2011) Dietary intake and rural–urban migration in India: a cross-sectional study. PLoS One 6(6), e14822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caldwell, JC (1993) Health transition: the cultural, social, and behavioural determinants of health in the Third World. Social Science & Medicine 36(2), 125–135.Google Scholar
Clark, SJ, Gómez-Olivé, FX, Houle, B, Thorogood, M, Klipstein-Grobusch, K, Angotti, N et al. (2015) Cardiometabolic disease risk and HIV status in rural South Africa: establishing a baseline. BMC Public Health 15(1), 135–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collinson, MA (2010) Striving against adversity: the dynamics of migration, health and poverty in rural South Africa. Global Health Action 3(1), 5080.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collinson, MA, Tollman, SM and Kahn, K (2007) Migration, settlement change and health in post-Apartheid South Africa: triangulating health and demographic surveillance with National Census Data. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 35 (Supplement 69), 77–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collinson, MA, White, MJ, Bocquier, P, McGarvey, S, Afolabi, SA, Clark, SJ et al. (2014) Migration and the epidemiological transition: insights from the Agincourt sub-district of northeast South Africa. Global Health Action 7, 23514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collinson, MA, White, MJ, Ginsburg, C, Gómez-Olivé, FX, Kahn, K and Tollman, SM (2016) Youth migration, livelihood prospects and demographic dividend: a comparison of the Census 2011 and Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in the rural northeast of South Africa. African Population Studies 30(2), 2629–2639.Google Scholar
Day, C, Groenewald, P, Laubscher, R, Chaudhry, S, Van Schaik, N and Bradshaw, D (2014) Monitoring of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension in South Africa: challenges for the post-2015 global development agenda. South African Medical Journal 104(10), 680.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dobra, A, Bärnighausen, T, Vandormael, A and Tanser, F (2017) Space–time migration patterns and risk of HIV acquisition in rural South Africa. AIDS 31(1), 137–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebrahim, S, Kinra, S, Bowen, L, Andersen, E, Ben-Shlomo, Y, Lyngdoh, T et al. (2010) The effect of rural-to-urban migration on obesity and diabetes in India: a cross-sectional study. PLoS Medicine 7(4), e1000268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ekezie, J, Anyanwu, EG, Danborno, B and Anthony, U (2011) Impact of urbanization on obesity, anthropometric profile and BP in the Igbos of Nigeria. North American Journal of Medical Sciences 3(3), 242–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farquhar, WB, Edwards, DG, Jurkovitz, CT and Weintraub, WS (2015) Dietary sodium and health. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 65(10), 1042–1050.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fezeu, L, Kengne, AP, Balkau, B, Awah, PK and Mbanya, JC (2010) Ten-year change in blood pressure levels and prevalence of hypertension in urban and rural Cameroon. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 64, 360–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenk, J, Bobadilla, JL, Stern, C, Frejka, T and Lozano, R (1991) Elements for a theory of the health transition. Health Transition Review 1, 21–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Ginsburg, C, Collinson, MA, Iturralde, D, van Tonder, L, Gómez-Olivé, FX, Kahn, K and Tollman, S (2016) Migration and settlement change in South Africa: triangulating Census 2011 with longitudinal data from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in the rural north-east. Southern African Journal of Demography 17(1), 133–198.Google Scholar
Gómez-Olivé, FX, Ali, SA, Made, F, Kyobutungi, C, Nonterah, E, Micklesfield, L et al. (2017) Regional and sex differences in the prevalence and awareness of hypertension: an H3Africa AWI-Gen study across 6 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Global Health 12(2), 81–90.Google ScholarPubMed
Gómez-Olivé, FX, Angotti, N, Houle, B, Klipstein-Grobusch, K, Kabudula, C, Menken, J et al. (2013) Prevalence of HIV among those 15 and older in rural South Africa. AIDS Care 25, 1122–1128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorman, BK and Sivaganesan, A (2007) The role of social support and integration for understanding socioeconomic disparities in self-rated health and hypertension. Social Science & Medicine 65(5), 958–975.Google Scholar
Hendriks, ME, Wit, FW, Roos, MT, Brewster, LM, Akande, TM, de Beer, IH et al. (2012) Hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa: cross-sectional surveys in four rural and urban communities. PloS One 7(3), e32638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hosegood, V, Benzler, J and Solarsh, GC (2005) Population mobility and household dynamics in rural South Africa: implications for demographic and health research. Southern African Journal of Demography 10, 43–68.Google Scholar
Ibrahim, MM and Damasceno, A (2012) Hypertension in Developing countries. The Lancet 380(9841), 611–619.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahn, K., Collinson, MA, Gomez-Olive, FX, Mokoena, O, Twine, R, Mee, P et al. (2012) Profile: Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System. International Journal of Epidemiology 41, 988–1001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kayima, J, Wanyenze, RK, Katamba, A, Leontsini, E and Nuwaha, F (2013) Hypertension awareness, treatment and control in Africa: a systematic review. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders 13(1), 54–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd-Sherlock, P, Beard, J, Minicuci, N, Ebrahim, S and Chatterji, S (2014) Hypertension among older adults in low- and middle-income countries: prevalence, awareness and control. International Journal of Epidemiology 43(1), 116–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lu, Y (2009) Rural–urban migration and health: evidence from longitudinal data in Indonesia. Social Science & Medicine 70, 412–419.Google Scholar
Lurie, MN and Williams, BG (2014) Migration and health in southern Africa: 100 years and still circulating. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine 2(1), 34–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lurie, MN, Williams, BG, Zuma, K, Mkaya-Mwamburi, D, Garnett, GP, Sturm, AW et al. (2003) The impact of migration on HIV-1 transmission in South Africa: a study of migrant and nonmigrant men and their partners. Sexually Transmitted Diseases 30(2), 149–156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, C (1981) Families Divided: The Impact of Migrant Labour in Lesotho. Ravan, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (2017) Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19.1 million participants. The Lancet 389(10064), 37–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ntuli, ST, Maimela, E, Alberts, M, Choma, S and Dikotope, S (2015) Prevalence and associated risk factors of hypertension amongst adults in a rural community of Limpopo Province, South Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine 7(1), 847–851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Omran, AR (1971) The epidemiologic transition: a theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 83, 509–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osamor, PE (2015) Social support and management of hypertension in South-West Nigeria: cardiovascular topic. Cardiovascular Journal of Africa 26(1), 29–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posel, D and Casale, D (2003) What has been happening to internal labour migration in South Africa, 1993–1999? South African Journal of Economics 71(3), 455–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, HE (2013) Moving across boundaries: migration in South Africa, 1950–2000. Demography 50(1), 71–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soubeiga, JK, Millogo, T, Bicaba, BW, Doulougou, B and Kouanda, S (2017) Prevalence and factors associated with hypertension in Burkina Faso: A Countrywide Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Public Health 17(1), 64–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strogat, DS, Croft, JB, James, SA, Keenan, NL, Browning, SR, Garret, JM and Curtis, AB (1997) Social support, stress, and blood pressure in Black Adults. Epidemiology 8(5), 482–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorogood, M, Connor, M, Tollman, S, Hundt, GL, Fowkes, G and Marsh, J A (2007) Cross-sectional study of vascular risk factors in a rural South African population: data from the Southern African Stroke Prevention Initiative. BMC Public Health 7(1), 326–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tollman, SM, Kahn, K, Sartorius, B, Collinson, MA, Clark, SJ and Garenne, ML (2008) Implications of mortality transition for primary health care in Rural South Africa: a population-based surveillance study. The Lancet 372(9642), 893–901.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Topouchian, JA, El Assaad, MA, Orobinskaia, LV, El Feghali, RN and Asmar, RG (2006) Validation of two automatic devices for self-measurement of blood pressure according to the International Protocol of the European Society of Hypertension: the Omron M6 (HEM-7001-E) and the Omron R7 (HEM 637-IT). Blood Pressure Monitoring 11, 165–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turok, I (2012) Urbanisation and Development in South Africa: Economic Imperatives, Spatial Distortions and Strategic Responses. Human Settlements Group, International Institute for Environment and Development. London.Google Scholar
Uchino, BN (2006) Social support and health: a review of physiological processes potentially underlying links to disease outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 29(4), 377–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Unwin, N, James, P, McLarty, D, Machybia, H, Nkulila, P, Tamin, B et al. (2010) Rural to urban migration and changes in cardiovascular risk factors in Tanzania: a prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health 10(1), 272–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WHO (2006) WHO SAGE Survey Manual: The WHO Study on Global Aging and Adult Health. WHO, Geneva.Google Scholar
WHO (2010) Hidden Cities: Unmasking and Overcoming Health Inequities in Urban Settings. WHO, Geneva.Google Scholar
WHO (2013) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013–2020. WHO, Geneva.Google Scholar