Determining the migration status of 24 million individuals living in England using the OpenSAFELY platform
1
Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
2
King's College London, London, United Kingdom
3
City St George’s, University of London, London, United Kingdom
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
England is home to 9.8 million individuals who were not born in the UK. Having accurate information on migration status in electronic health records (EHR), with appropriate risk mitigation strategies to prevent misuse, is essential for monitoring inequities in morbidity, mortality and risk factors for ill health in migrant populations. This study aims to describe the migration status of individuals in OpenSAFELY-TPP, an analytic platform that contains the primary care records of approximately 40% of the population of England, or 24 million individuals.
METHODS:
Combinations of clinical codelists indicative of country of birth, immigration status, language and ethnicity will be used to determine the migration status of individuals in OpenSAFELY-TPP. Based on this, individuals will be classified into 3-level categories (migrant, non-migrant or unknown) or 6-level categories (definite migrant, highly likely migrant, likely migrant, definite non-migrant and likely non-migrant and unknown). To externally validate migration recording in the primary care data, comparisons will be made to the 2021 and 2011 English census’ and country of birth statistics from the Office for National Statistics.
RESULTS:
We will present demographic descriptions of the individuals within each sub-category of the migration statuses, which will include breakdowns by age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We will also present comparisons to the census and official statistics broken down by demographic characteristics.
CONCLUSIONS:
Through improving our understanding of migration coding in primary care data within the OpenSAFELY platform, this study will facilitate future population-level research on migrants’ health and inequities in England.
England is home to 9.8 million individuals who were not born in the UK. Having accurate information on migration status in electronic health records (EHR), with appropriate risk mitigation strategies to prevent misuse, is essential for monitoring inequities in morbidity, mortality and risk factors for ill health in migrant populations. This study aims to describe the migration status of individuals in OpenSAFELY-TPP, an analytic platform that contains the primary care records of approximately 40% of the population of England, or 24 million individuals.
METHODS:
Combinations of clinical codelists indicative of country of birth, immigration status, language and ethnicity will be used to determine the migration status of individuals in OpenSAFELY-TPP. Based on this, individuals will be classified into 3-level categories (migrant, non-migrant or unknown) or 6-level categories (definite migrant, highly likely migrant, likely migrant, definite non-migrant and likely non-migrant and unknown). To externally validate migration recording in the primary care data, comparisons will be made to the 2021 and 2011 English census’ and country of birth statistics from the Office for National Statistics.
RESULTS:
We will present demographic descriptions of the individuals within each sub-category of the migration statuses, which will include breakdowns by age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We will also present comparisons to the census and official statistics broken down by demographic characteristics.
CONCLUSIONS:
Through improving our understanding of migration coding in primary care data within the OpenSAFELY platform, this study will facilitate future population-level research on migrants’ health and inequities in England.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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