Psychiatric symptomatology among Mexican American farmworkers

Abstract

The paper presents findings from an epidemiologic field survey of 500 Mexican American farmworkers conducted in central California. The survey was intended as a health needs assessment of this population and the Health Opinion Survey was used to establish normative psychiatric symptom distributions. Analyses of the data by gender, age and income revealed that these socio-demographic variables were not important predictors of symptom levels, although the highest mean scores were reported in the 40–59 age group. Income levels were modest and fairly uniform, which contributed to the lack of mean score variation. Symptom distributions were analyzed for the variables age and sex using the HOS criteria of caseness and it was found that approx. 20% of the sample reached the criteria of caseness. A comparison of HOS mean scores with a national sample of surveys indicated that Mexican American farmworkers had symptom levels which resemble those of other low income socio-economic groups, such as southern blacks. Another analysis was conducted which reported a striking correspondence between self perception of health with psychiatric symptoms. A conclusion reached from the survey is that the Mexican Ametican farmworkers in this sample appear to be experiencing psychiatric symptom levels which place them at extraordinary risk. Stresses associated with this group, i.e. limited social mobility, transience, poverty, discrimination and a high rate of traumatic life events were identified as possible contributors to this risk proneness.