A scoping review of the available literature on the epidemiologic profile of migrants in-transit through South America, Central America, and Mexico from 2013-2025

Abstract

Background

Migration through Latin America has increased, resulting in new routes and greater diversity among migrants. Timely, accurate data on the epidemiologic profiles of migrants in-transit could inform public health surveillance and interventions.

Objective

Provide an overview of the type of data collected on the epidemiologic profiles of migrants in-transit through South America, Central America, and Mexico.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review from peer-reviewed and grey literature reporting quantitative health data on selected infectious and non-infectious diseases, vaccination coverage, and causes of mortality migrants in-transit through South America, Central America, and Mexico between 2013 and 2025 by searching Embase, Medline, Global Health, Sociological Abstracts, Scopus, LILACS, NTIS, OpenGrey, and MedRxlv.

Results

We identified 7,355 publications; 124 met inclusion criteria. Of these, 24% specified a transit migration phase. Cross-sectional methodology was employed in 86%; and 62% were published in the last four years (2022-2025). Sociodemographic variables were inconsistently reported, and migration-related variables were infrequent. Health concepts frequently investigated included HIV (28%), TB (14%) COVID-19 (15%), mental health (33%), food insecurity (14%), mortality (10%) and vaccination (6%). Chronic conditions were frequently reported as comorbidities.

Conclusion

Limited detailed information is available to inform health surveillance and interventions among migrants in-transit. Additional migration-related variables, including time in-transit and transit migration phase, an expansion of data collection to geographical areas experiencing an increase in mobility, and rigorous study designs could yield valuable insights.