Abstract
People of African descent have migrated to Philadelphia since the 17th century. First arriving by forced migration and then voluntary migration, the current Black population is heterogeneous, consisting of individuals of US ancestry (direct descendants of enslaved Africans in the US) and individuals of African and Caribbean ancestry (descendants or individuals who have voluntarily migrated to the US post-slavery). While Africa is the common ancestral origin of these Black subgroups, migrants' (whether newly arrived or settled) health characteristics usually differ from the health characteristics represented in their native country. Recent data from our US-based cohort of diverse Black participants (The Cancer Prevention Project of Philadelphia—CAP3) reveal distinct differences in health-related behaviors between US-born Blacks, Caribbean immigrants, and African immigrants. As length of time in the US increased, cancer screening habits, smoking, and BMI increase and suggest that as immigrants begin to assimilate with the dominant culture, they learn both positive and negative health behaviors.
Citation Format: Camille Ragin. Effect of migration to the US on health characteristics of the African diaspora [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr IA24.
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