The impact of ethnicity and self-reported health on psychological well-being: a comparative study of Kurdish-born and Swedish-born people.
Although immigrants generally have poorer health and higher psychological distress than the native population, information on Kurdish immigrants' psychological well-being is limited. The aims of the study were to examine the association between ethnicity and poor psychological well-being, and to assess the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health, somatic pain, gastrointestinal complaints and poor psychological well-being.


METHODS
Immigrants with self-reported Kurdish ethnicity (men, n=111; women, n=86) in Sweden from the national sample of immigrants aged 27-60 and 1407 Swedes (1996) were studied. Unconditional logistic regression was performed using the Stata Software program. In the logistic model adjusted for age, sex, employment and self-reported health, the odds ratio for Kurdish-born subjects for having poor psychological well-being is twice as high as for Swedish-born subjects. Subjects with poor self-reported health had more than a threefold higher odds ratio for having poor psychological well-being compared with those with good self-reported health. Furthermore, being female, having somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints regardless of ethnicity increased the odds for having poor psychological well-being. Being Kurdish-born and/or reporting poor health in addition to age, female gender, somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints is significantly and independently related to poor psychological well-being even when adjusted for all confounders.
Taloyan
Marina
M
Center for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden. marina.taloyan@sll.se
Sundquist
Jan
J
Al-Windi
Ahmad
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D012650:Self Disclosure; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology