Abstract Body

Migration has been part of human history and migrants are always in search of better opportunities to improve the quality of their lives. Migration reflects the advent of an interdependent world, stimulating new cultural and economic exchanges, and contributing to the social reconfiguration of host and departure societies.

The health of migrants is a global phenomenon that concerns several million people worldwide. The health vulnerability of migrants may be due to several factors such as difficulties in early childhood (e.g., poverty and malnutrition), poor living conditions in the host country, hard and dangerous work and psychological problems related to the migration process. Migrants have more health problems than the hosting population. They are more vulnerable to communicable diseases, but also to noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and obesity. Migrants tend to have more mental illness, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress with an increasing risk in asylum seekers and undocumented refugees. Women and children are likely to encounter different health risks during all migration processes and to face human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Identifying and addressing political, racial and social determinants of health in Migrants enables health policymakers to carry out appropriate interventions to improve Migrants’ health. The right to health must extend to all individuals who migrate, regardless of their migration circumstances or legal status. Concrete evidence shows that safeguarding the health of migrants will have positive effects on the global wealth of departure and receiving countries.

Abstract Body

After the recent increased number of immigrants and refugees in many world countries, a new area of interest in research has been developed, investigating the immigrants and refugees needs and capacity to access to health services in hosting countries, their main clinical data, the possibilities of different phenotypic presentation of the diseases, the effect of the migration on some pathological conditions, their genetic background. Clinical Neurology and Neurosciences have been very much involved , evaluating the link between migration and risk of several common neurologic disorders (stroke, dementia, MS, etc), migration and specific brain diseases, migration and the access to host country health services, the possibility to discover DNA mutation typical of specific areas, the improviement of diagnosis of rare diseases in refugies where consanguineity is frequent, investigations of child migration and neuropsychology, possible effects of bilinguism as protection in cognitive disturbances, etc . In this presentation we will summarize the most relevant data on these topics.

All the results show that immigration and refugees research may be a promising area for Neurology and Neurosciences, in clinical and in basic studies, offering also interesting contributions to politicians in order to improve the quality of life of immigrants and refugees and in the same time to improve the knowledge of brain functions and dysfunctions.

Abstract Body

Cerebrovascular disorders are the second leading cause of death and disability. Migration is one of the very important factors which is very effective to change the populations and health indexes. Refugees are the most susceptible groups which have many difficulties in health-related areas. Cerebrovascular risk factors including hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and behavioral risk factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity) are common in migrant populations and may differ among the migrant groups according to the countries origin, cultural, economic and social factors. There are different etiologies for stroke as related to the different health statuses of the regions. Cardiovascular risk factors increase with aging and modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors. Prevention strategies for cerebrovascular cardiovascular risk factors include treatment modalities and modification of lifestyles with healthy behaviors as healthy eating habits, physical activity, and awareness for these factors. Preventive health care for the population including migrants is very important to reduce the global health burden. Strategies like “The Sustainable Development Goals” are very important to increase migrant health conditions and improve prevention of cardiovascular risk factors. New approaches must be developed to prevent cardiovascular risk factors in migrants. To develop national plans and strategies to promote a healthy lifestyle, reach using every option including telemedicine is very important.