Factors are associated with perceived higher quality health among people that have migrated within Bangladesh

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors associated with perceiving quality of health among individuals who have migrated within Bangladesh, focusing on social support, education, food availability, occupation, and environmental conditions. Data were taken from the Bangladesh Environment and Migration Survey (BEMS) involving 1,754 migratory families. Perceived quality of health was assessed with social and emotional support, education, food availability, occupation, and perceived changes in cyclone severity. The analyses were conducted utilizing Stata software with weighted data and the chi-squared test. The study found, majority of the respondents perceived quality health after migration. Most of the migrants reported quality health after receiving emotional and social support from the community. Those who had better educational status or not, improved their health status after migration. Bivariate chi square analyses revealed that professional occupation reported the highest quality health perceived versus other occupation (p<.001). On the environmental aspects, both perceived quality health regardless of experienced cyclone severity changes. Contrary to common belief, this study finds a weaker relationship between education, food shortages or social support and quality health after migration. These findings have important implications for understanding perceived quality of health, suggesting that other factors associated with the control variables, may play a more significant role. A major limitation of this study is to use a cross-sectional data that restricts the ability to infer causal relationships between migration and perceiving quality health.