Migration and health: A systematic review on health and health care of internal migrants in India.

The objective of this paper is to review published studies on various health conditions and health care access of internal migrants in India. The guidelines under PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis were followed. We searched 3 databases-Web of Science, Medline (PubMed), and Google Scholar. By applying selection criteria, we identified a total of 42 papers to include in the review. These studies reported various health problems/morbid conditions, and some studies reported health care access. Major health issues of poor migrants included work-related injuries, noncommunicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, and communicable diseases like malaria and HIV. In addition, behavioural risks such as the use of tobacco and alcohol are reported. Information on health care seeking and poor access to government health care system are available. This review demonstrates the need to improve the health status and health care access of poor migrants. As health systems-related factors also influence the health care seeking behaviour, they are to be considered along with improving the living conditions of this population. Thus, a comprehensive migrant-sensitive health care should be the part of the urban health care system.