Pain, mental well-being, lifestyle and long-standing drug use in ethnic minorities in Sweden and among repatriated Latin American refugees

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine whether members of ethnic minorities in Sweden and repatriated Latin American refugees suffer from more pain than the majority population. Further, to describe simple demographic data and rates of lifestyle, material conditions, mental well-being, sickness and long-term use of drugs. This survey, involving face-to-face interviews, focused on 338 refugees from Latin America aged 16–74 years, who lived in Lund, and 60 Latin American refugees from Lund who were repatriated. A random sample of 165 South European labour migrants, 398 Finnish labour migrants, and 1159 Swedish controls from the Swedish Annual Level-of-Living Surveys 1980–1981 and 1988–1989 were used. The data were analysed unmatched with logistic regression in main effect models. Lund, a medium-sized town in southern Sweden, Santiago and Montevideo capitals of Chile and Uruguay respectively, and the whole of Sweden (labour migrants from Southern Europe and Finland, Swedish controls) were the areas used for the study. There was a strong association between being a Latin American refugee and self-rated pain, with an estimated odds ratio of 1.99 (1.22–3.17) when controlled for sex, age and lifestyle variables (logistic regression). No association was revealed between the other ethnic groups and the dependent variable pain in logistic regression or with crude odds ratios. Age, not taking regular exercise and daily smoking were significant risk factors for pain. Negative factors for health such as not taking regular exercise and smoking were more common among all studied ethnic groups. Scarce social network, poor material conditions, and poor mental well-being were common among refugees and labour migrants living in Sweden. Furthermore, about half of the Latin American refugees had consulted a physician in the previous 2 weeks compared with 2.7% of the Swedes About half of the Latin American refugees and those who were repatriated and a quarter of the labour migrants and 16% of the Swedes were under regular medical treatment. The present study showed that being a non-European refugee with experiences of violent uprooting from a culturally different society was associated with increased odds for pain. Further, that ethnic minorities in Sweden in the future might have an increased risk of poor health because of a negative lifestyle and the influence of other negative demographic and social variables.