title: Assessing psychological stress among Arab migrant women in the City of Cologne/Germany using the Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) approach.
abstract: Migrants suffer from various health problems including psychological stress. This study is the first to use the Community Oriented Primary Care methodology to address a health problem among Arab migrant women in Germany. In partnership with the Muslim Women's Educational Center in Cologne, we defined a community, identified an important health problem through focus groups, key informant interviews and a community discussion group, and studied psychological stress in a sample of Arab migrant women (N = 116) using a questionnaire that included the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) instrument. Almost 90% of participating women were psychologically stressed. About half of the women cited "feeling lonely" as a main source of stress and another third cited religious, moral and personal factors as sources of stress. While the majority of women reacted to stressful situations with crying, 23% coped by talking to others and 20% through worship. Higher stress scores were associated with older age, lower level of education, having more children, coming from a North African rather than Middle Eastern or European country, having lived in Germany for <15 years, having had a disease since migrating to Germany, being ill at the time of the study, and feeling negatively about being a migrant. To date, this study provides the most comprehensive study of psychological distress among Arab migrants in Germany, and provides important information for future studies and interventions.
authors.affiliation: Italian Cooperation, Consulate General of Italy, Mujeer Eddin Street 2, Sheikh Jarrah, PO Box 4570, Jerusalem 91044, Israel. maesa_irfaeya@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Maesa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Irfaeya
authors.forename: Annette E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krämer
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D018912:Arabs / Q000523:psychology*; D003153:Community Health Services; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012067:Religion; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology*