Migration and Health in Older Adults: The Cognitive and Health Profile of Lusophone Immigrants in Luxembourg in Comparison to Local Samples from Portugal

Objective: This study aimed to investigate differences in cognition, mental health, and general health among older Lusophone immigrants (>55 years old) in Luxembourg compared to a sample residing in Portugal. Methods: Data from immigrants (N=83, mean age=62.08, SD=6.511, 72.84% women) were sourced from the MEDITAGING study, funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)-Project Reference 15240063. Portuguese data were collected by the GABT (N=55, mean age=68.18, SD = 5.869, 74.55% women) and PREDICTOR projects (N=83, mean age=67.86, SD=5.24, 83.13% women). The outcomes were the Body Mass Index and the score on the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Trail Making Test (TMT), the 5-Item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5), and the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAI). Results: The findings revealed significant differences between the immigrant and reference samples in TMT time A (p = .018), TMT time B (p = .004), TMT B-A (p = .03 0), GAI (p < .001), and GDS (p = .001), with immigrants performing higher than their peers in all these measures. A Linear regression analysis indicated that having hypertension (p = .026), being unmarried (p = .008), and having fewer years of formal education (p = .003) are associated with higher scores in TMT Time A, while having less formal education (p > .001) is related to higher scores in Time B. Conclusion: The findings suggest that Lusophone immigrants residing in Luxembourg have worse affective and cognitive outcomes compared to their peers living in Portugal. However, further exploration of the influence of health and sociodemographic factors is necessary.