Abstract
Background: Mental health risk-factors for Asian migrants have been studied almost exclusively in the US, Canada, and Australia but not in European countries. Therefore, we aimed to identify sociodemographic, clinical, and migration-surrounding factors associated with experienced mental distress among Vietnamese migrants in Germany.Method: 305 Vietnamese migrants utilizing Germany's first Vietnamese psychiatric outpatient clinic filled out at admission the Brief-Symptom-Inventory 18 (BSI-18) as well as a questionnaire on 22 potential mental health determinants. Using a multiple linear regression model, we identified those sociodemographic, clinical, and migration-surrounding factors that were significantly related to the Global Severity Index (GSI) of the BSI-18.Results: The factors unemployment (B = −6.32, p = 0.014), financial problems (B = −10.71, p < 0.001), no or only little religious involvement (B = −3.23, p = 0.002), no psychiatric precontact (B = −7.35, p = 0.004), previous migration experiences (B = 8.76, p = 0.002), and perceived discrimination (B = 6.58, p = 0.011) were found to significantly increase the level of mental distress according to the BSI-GSI.Conclusion: Based on these results, we were able to construct a mental health risk-profile for Vietnamese migrants in Germany, which aims to detect candidates for psychiatric problems earlier and supply them with customized prevention and therapy options.
Highlights
Even today, Asian migrants are still being found to underreport psychological complaints and to under utilize mental health care services worldwide [1]
Acculturation characteristics Years lived in the host country Age at migration Status of current residence German language skills Very good Good Moderate Few None Previous migration experiences Feeling of being at home in Germany Close connection to the home country Perceived discrimination Dimension of acculturation Dominant Society Immersion (DSI) Ethnic Society Immersion (ESI)
The symptomatology was present for an average time of 23.0 (SD = 37.7) months at the date of the first admission. 92 (30.2%) patients had a former contact with the mental health care system, and 29 (9.9%) had attempted suicide at least once in the past
Summary
Asian migrants are still being found to underreport psychological complaints and to under utilize mental health care services worldwide [1]. While significantly more mood- and anxietyrelated complaints were reported among South Asian women in Canada [5], the opposite was the case concerning the rates of substance abuse among Indians in the United States [6]. It should be noted, that this finding does account for Asian men and women in the US or Canada, and for the mainstream populations worldwide, where moodand anxiety-disorders appear to be generally more widespread among women. Mental health risk-factors for Asian migrants have been studied almost exclusively in the US, Canada, and Australia but not in European countries. We aimed to identify sociodemographic, clinical, and migration-surrounding factors associated with experienced mental distress among Vietnamese migrants in Germany
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