2 research outputs found
Level of distress, somatisation and beliefs on health-disease in newly arrived immigrant patients attended in primary care centres in Catalonia and definition of professional competences for their most effective management: PROMISE Project
Background: Newly arrived immigrant patients who frequently use primary health care resources have difficulties in
verbal communication. Also, they have a system of beliefs related to health and disease that makes difficult for health
care professionals to comprehend their reasons for consultation, especially when consulting for somatic manifestations.
Consequently, this is an important barrier to achieve optimum care to these groups. The current project has two main
objectives: 1. To define the different stressors, the level of distress perceived, and its impact in terms of discomfort
and somatisation affecting the main communities of immigrants in our area, and 2. To identify the characteristics of
cross-cultural competence of primary health care professionals to best approach these reasons for consultation.
Methods/Design: It will be a transversal, observational, multicentre, qualitative-quantitative study in a sample of 980
people from the five main non-European Union immigrant communities residing in Catalonia: Maghrebis, Sub-Saharans,
Andean South Americans, Hindustanis, and Chinese. Sociodemographic data, level of distress, information on the different
stressors and their somatic manifestations will be collected in specific questionnaires. Through a semi-structured interview
and qualitative methodology, it will be studied the relation between somatic manifestations and particular beliefs of each
group and how these are associated with the processes of disease and seeking for care. A qualitative methodology based
on individual interviews centred on critical incidents, focal groups and in situ questionnaires will be used to study the
cross-cultural competences of the professionals.
Discussion: It is expected a high level of chronic stress associated with the level of somatisations in the different
non-European Union immigrant communities. The results will provide better knowledge of these populations and will
improve the comprehension and the efficacy of the health care providers in prevention, communication, care
management and management of resources