A new study shows that babies born in Ontario from immigrant mothers have a 23% lower risk of cerebral palsy (CP), a common motor disability that appears at age 4 and for which there is no cure.
The study followed all single births in Ontario from 2002 to 2008. The rate of CP among non-immigrant mothers was 1.92 per 1000 births and 1.45 per 1000 births for immigrant mother.
While the authors cannot fully explain this phenomenon using known risk factors (such as smoking, obesity, diabetes), they argue that it could be a consequence of the “healthy immigrant effect” since Canada’s mostly admits immigrants who are skilled and educated, and are generally healthier than people in Canada.
Original research paper published in the journal PLoS ONE on July 14, 2014.
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