Background Public health interventions increasingly focus on changing social and physical environments. In addition to these environmental changes, populations experience their own changes, including major life events such as residential relocation. However, understanding if newcomers and settled residents are different and whether they have different perceptions of the environment and reactions to environmental change remains underexplored. Here, we investigate differences between newcomers and settled residents in the UK across health, behaviour and neighbourhood perceptions in a large nationally representative sample.

Methods We utilize data from wave 3 to 6 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Using a balanced panel of adults, newcomers were identified as those with any house move since wave 3 (n=4,468) and settled residents as those with no move (n=23,875). Pooled characteristics of both groups in wave 6 were compared descriptively using Pearson Chi-Square and Wald tests, and in regression analyses on ten outcomes reflecting mental and physical health, travel behaviours, economic status and neighbourhood perceptions. We also explore interactions with area deprivation, residential urbanicity, life-course stage, and household income.

Results In models fully adjusted for personal and area characteristics, newcomers had significantly worse mental health (-.52; CI -.94,-.10), and lower odds of using the car to travel to work (OR.79; CI .68,.92) than settled residents. There were significant interactions with area deprivation: Newcomers in high deprivation areas were less likely to be employed and had better physical health than settled residents (with the opposite for those living in low deprivation areas). Significant interactions with urbanity showed that newcomers in the most rural areas were less satisfied with their neighbourhood and had higher odds of using the car to travel to work than settled residents. In terms of life course, the youngest (15–29) and oldest (65+) newcomers showed significantly lower mental health scores. Yet, older newcomers were significantly less worried about crime in the area.

Conclusion This study finds significant differences between newcomers and settled residents in the UK in the use of non-car travel and mental health. It finds little support for the ‘healthy migrant hypothesis’ instead that newcomers have lower overall mental health and lower physical health in areas of low deprivation. Moving location and reason appear to substantially moderate the associations with being a newcomer and should be considered when drawing conclusions on either group. Future research should explore for how long differences between newcomers and settled residents remain, and if these differences affect reactions to environmental interventions.