Ana Glória Fonseca 1 , Sara S Dias 2 , Joao Luis Baptista 3 , Jorge Torgal 1 Show Affiliations »
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Psychological health problems are highlighted among the most relevant disease patterns in expatriates. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychological well-being in Portuguese expatriates in Angola and Mozambique, considering the increasing expatriation wave. METHODS: A cross-sectional self-administered web survey was conducted in a sample of 352 Portuguese civil expatriates in Angola and Mozambique. Clinically significant psychological distress was determined using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 and associated factors were studied using multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: GHQ-12 items showed good internal consistency as reflected by the Cronbach's alpha. One-third of the screened expatriates corresponded to cases of clinically significant psychological distress. Age, country of birth, self-reported psychological symptoms and self-perception of general health in the previous 3 months were identified as independent variables associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing awareness and monitoring expatriates mental health should be in the health agenda, furthermore considering them a risk group in need of evidence-based mental health expatriate preparedness. The use of user-friendly validated tools, such as GHQ-12, allowing objective assessment and surveillance of these hard to reach populations should be reinforced. © International Society of Travel Medicine, 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
BACKGROUND: Psychological health problems are highlighted among the most relevant disease patterns in expatriates. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychological well-being in Portuguese expatriates in Angola and Mozambique, considering the increasing expatriation wave. METHODS: A cross-sectional self-administered web survey was conducted in a sample of 352 Portuguese civil expatriates in Angola and Mozambique. Clinically significant psychological distress was determined using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 and associated factors were studied using multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: GHQ-12 items showed good internal consistency as reflected by the Cronbach's alpha. One-third of the screened expatriates corresponded to cases of clinically significant psychological distress. Age, country of birth, self-reported psychological symptoms and self-perception of general health in the previous 3 months were identified as independent variables associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing awareness and monitoring expatriates mental health should be in the health agenda, furthermore considering them a risk group in need of evidence-based mental health expatriate preparedness. The use of user-friendly validated tools, such as GHQ-12, allowing objective assessment and surveillance of these hard to reach populations should be reinforced. © International Society of Travel Medicine, 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
Entities: Chemical
Keywords:
GHQ-12; General Health Questionnaire; Portuguese expatriates; psychological health; surveillance
Mesh： See more »
Year: 2017
PMID： 29088477 DOI： 10.1093/jtm/tax061
Source DB: PubMed Journal: J Travel Med ISSN： 1195-1982 Impact factor: 8.490