Mental Health and its Influencing Factors Among Immigrants with Chronic Diseases in China

Abstract

Immigrants are a special group in society, and their health is of great concern. Few studies have targeted this population in China. A cross-sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted from July to August 2018 in Hubei Province, China. Chi-square tests, Z-tests and multivariable linear regression analysis were performed to analyze the data using SPSS 24.0. A total of 1068 questionnaires were distributed. The results showed that the variables that affected the mental health of the immigrants with chronic diseases included gender, annual income, life events (L), negative emotion (NE), negative coping styles (NC) and objective support (OS) (p ≤ 0.05). Future research should focus on the physical and mental health of different immigrant groups and design effective, individualized interventions to improve the health status of immigrants, especially those with chronic diseases.

Psychosocial and Sociodemographic Determinants Related to Chronic Diseases in Immigrants Residing in Spain

“…Gender is also observed to be a predictor of some health conditions. As observed in other research [ 11 , 66 ], gender is notably relevant as a health determinant in immigrant populations, with women suffering more health problems [ 67 ], particularly arthrosis, back pain and migraine. These results are in line with those obtained by Zou et al (2021), who performed a systematic review on immigrant women and physical activity [ 68 ].…”

“…Social status, gender, ethnical origin or place of residence are some of the social determinants that explain the distribution of health in immigrant populations to a high extent [ 11 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Based on the results obtained, age is the variable with the highest relation with the chronic diseases analyzed.…”

“…Likewise, the perception of social support relates positively to coping mechanisms that reduce stress and health problems [ 12 , 86 ]. Studies such as the one carried out by Jia et al (2022) analyze coping mechanisms among other factors and how these affect immigrants’ health [ 11 ].…”

“…Cumulative exposure to chronic stress has been seen to contribute to the worsening of health in immigrants who have lived in host countries for longer periods of time [ 8 , 9 ]. This means that migrating can have a negative impact on individuals’ health due to multiple physical and psychosocial tensions suffered during the migration process [ 10 , 11 ]. These tensions can lead to high levels of stress and an increase in risk-behaviors in immigrants, thus affecting their overall health [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] and potentially causing them to develop certain chronic diseases or worsening existing conditions.…”

Residents' Cognition and Knowledge Demand of Mental Disorders: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study in Shandong, China

“…So far, there are much literature has researched the mental disorder in China [10][11][12]. Mental health and its in uencing factors among immigrants with chronic diseases in China has been reported [13]. The COVID-19 lockdown and mental wellbeing of females in China was published [11].…”