Epidemiology of asylum seekers and refugees at the Mexico-US border: a cross-sectional analysis from the migrant settlement camp in Matamoros, Mexico

• Published in: BMC public health 2024-02, Vol.24 (1), p.489-489, Article 489
• Main Authors: Reynolds, Christopher W, Cheung, Allison W, Draugelis, Sarah, Bishop, Samuel, Mohareb, Amir M, Almaguer, Ernesto Miguel Merino, López, Yadira Benitez, Guerra, Lestter Enjamio, Rosenbloom, Raymond, Hua, Joanna, VanWinkle, Callie, Vadlamudi, Pratik, Kotagal, Vikas, Schmitzberger, Florian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analgesics; Analysis; Asylum seekers; Border patrol; COVID-19; Datasets; Demographic variables; Diagnostic tests; Disease; Electronic health records; Emigration and immigration; Epidemiology; Global health; Health aspects; Health behavior; Health care; Health services; Human migration; Humanitarianism; Immigration policy; Medical records; Medical screening; Mental health; Methods; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Older people; Pandemics; Patients; Population studies; Post traumatic stress disorder; Refugee camps; Refugees; Respiratory diseases; Risk; Skin diseases; Social aspects
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-17947-7

The number of migrants and asylum seekers at the Mexico-US border has increased to historic levels. Our objective was to determine the medical diagnoses and treatments of migrating people seeking care in humanitarian clinics in Matamoros, Mexico. We conducted a cross-sectional study of patient encounters by migrating people through a humanitarian clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, from November 22, 2019, to March 18, 2021. The clinics were operated by Global Response Medicine in concert with local non-governmental organizations. Clinical encounters were each coded to the appropriate ICD-10/CPT code and categorized according to organ system. We categorized medications using the WHO List of Essential Medicines and used multivariable logistic regression to determine associations between demographic variables and condition frequency. We found a total of 8,156 clinical encounters, which included 9,744 diagnoses encompassing 132 conditions (median age 26.8 years, female sex 58.2%). People originated from 24 countries, with the majority from Central America (n = 5598, 68.6%). The most common conditions were respiratory (n = 1466, 15.0%), musculoskeletal (n = 1081, 11.1%), and skin diseases (n = 473, 4.8%). Children were at higher risk for respiratory disease (aOR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.61-2.10), while older adults had greater risk for joint disorders (aOR = 3.35, 95% CI: 1.73-6.02). Women had decreased risk for injury (aOR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.40-0.63) and higher risk for genitourinary diseases (aOR = 4.99, 95% CI: 3.72-6.85) compared with men. Among 10,405 medications administered, analgesics were the most common (n = 3190, 30.7%) followed by anti-infectives (n = 2175, 21.1%). In this large study of a migrating population at the Mexico-US border, we found a variety of clinical conditions, with respiratory, musculoskeletal, and skin illnesses the most common in this study period which encompassed a period of restrictive immigration policy and the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.