Is migration stress related to increased cardiovascular diseases?

Introduction: Mass migration during the war, frenzy riots, famine, or due to compelling economic reasons are known to be associated with different health issues besides human distress and suffering. India has witnessed such a mass migration immediately before/during the independence (August 15, 1947) consequent to partition riots occurring in west and East Pakistan (present Bangladesh). Although many publications are there about the human and social tragedies associated with partition not much is known about the long-term cardiovascular related diseases of partition migrant individuals. The current communication is trying to address whether cardiovascular diseases in post-partition migrant subjects are any different from non-migrant individuals. Objectives: To evaluate cardiovascular morbidity pattern among partition migrants and non-migrant people. Materials and Methods: This is an observational study done at a tertiary care center from January 2016 to June 2019. The study population had migrant ethnic Indians (n = 30) from West Pakistan and non-migrant ethnic Indians based in Delhi (n = 30). Patients were asked about their demographic details, birthplace particularly the pre-independence place of birth/residence, a detailed pedigree analysis and cardiovascular risk was assessed. Statistical analysis was done to compare the proportion between the migrants and non-migrants subjects using Chi-square/Fisher’s exact test. Results: The mean age of migrants and non-migrants was found to be 78.46 ± 7.13 years and 78.16 ± 6.10 years respectively. Males (65%) were found to be more in both groups compared to females (35%). Both the migrants (83.33%) and non-migrants (73.33 %) were mostly from socioeconomic status (SES) I and II. Migrants (16.66%) showed more smoking habits compared to non-migrants (10%). Migrants were mostly suffering from hypertension alone (20%) or with two comorbidities (63.2%) like hypertension and diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes and CAD, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) with stroke. In non-migrant patients hypertension alone was seen in 16.6% of cases which is not statistically significant. Two comorbid cardiovascular conditions in this group were seen in 36.8% of cases as compared to migrant population with two comorbid conditions and this difference was statistically significant (P = 0.039)