Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Psychological Distress and Somatization in Immigrants in Primary Health Care Practices

Rosa GARCÍA-SIERRA
ORCID logo ,
María Isabel Fernández-Cano
* ,
Josep María MANRESA-DOMÍNGUEZ
,
María FEIJOO-CID
ORCID logo ,
Eduard MORENO-GABRIEL
,
Antonia ARRECIADO-MARAÑÓN
,
Francesc RAMOS-ROURE
,
Jordi SEGURA-BERNAL
,
Pere TORÁN-MONSERRAT
Version 1 : Received: 11 November 2020 / Approved: 13 November 2020 / Online: 13 November 2020 (16:20:01 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

García-Sierra, R.; Fernández-Cano, M.I.; Manresa-Domínguez, J.M.; Feijoo-Cid, M.; Moreno Gabriel, E.; Arreciado Marañón, A.; Ramos-Roure, F.; Segura-Bernal, J.; Torán-Monserrat, P. Psychological Distress and Somatization in Immigrants in Primary Health Care Practices. Healthcare 2020, 8, 557. García-Sierra, R.; Fernández-Cano, M.I.; Manresa-Domínguez, J.M.; Feijoo-Cid, M.; Moreno Gabriel, E.; Arreciado Marañón, A.; Ramos-Roure, F.; Segura-Bernal, J.; Torán-Monserrat, P. Psychological Distress and Somatization in Immigrants in Primary Health Care Practices. Healthcare 2020, 8, 557.

Abstract

The process of international migration causes a situation of vulnerability in people's health and greater difficulty in coping with disease. Furthermore, the adversities suffered during migration can trigger reactive signs of stress and cause anxious, depressive, confusional and somatic symptoms. This article studies the relationships between psychosocial risk, psychological distress and somatization in immigrants from 4 communities: Maghrebis, Sub-Saharans, South Americans and South Asian. A cross-sectional study was carried out with questionnaires on 602 immigrants who were surveyed in the Primary Care Centres of an urban area of Catalonia. The instruments used were the Demographic Psychosocial Inventory (DPSI), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Somatic Symptom Inventory (SSI). The average psychosocial risk obtained was 0.35, with the highest values in the sub-Saharan community. Psychological distress showed a mean value of 0.66, with the sub-Saharan community scoring the lowest in all dimensions except depression. The average somatization values were 1.65, with the sub-Saharan community scoring the least. The female gender is a risk factor for somatization and psychological distress. Perceived psychosocial risk is a predictor of psychological distress, but not somatization, suggesting that the use of more adaptive coping strategies could minimize the effect of the migration process on somatizations.

Keywords

Emigrants and Immigrants; Somatization disorders; Stress, Psychological; Primary Health Care; Vulnerable populations

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Immunology and Allergy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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