RT Journal Article
T1 Psychological distress among unemployed migrants settling in southwestern Spain A cross-sectional study
A1 Gómez Salgado, Juan
A1 Carrión Rico, David
A1 García Iglesias, Juan Jesús
A1 Climent Rodríguez, José Antonio
A1 Navarro Abal, Yolanda
A1 Fagundo Rivera, Javier
A1 Vaca Acosta, Rosa María
A1 Ruiz Frutos, Carlos
A1 Allande Cussó, Regina
AB Migrants living in the informal settlements of Southern Spain tend to have precarious employment and poor livingconditions, making then vulnerable to mental health issues. This study aimed to assess psychological distress in asample of unemployed migrants residing in informal settlements in the province of Huelva (southern Spain), during thefourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted during the months of Aprilto June 2021, through a heteroadministered questionnaire, in informal settlements. The measurement instrument was theGeneral Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), used to analyze psychological distress, and other sociodemographic and healthrelatedvariables. Univariate and bivariate descriptive data analysis were performed, using the nonparametric statisticsMann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and Tau β correlation. A categorical regression analysis was performed tostudy the relationship between psychological distress and the rest of the variables. The sample consisted of 317 subjects,83.9% of whom were males, and the mean age was 33.4 years (SD = 10.7 years). The mean score obtained in theGHQ-12 questionnaire was 13.69 points (SD = 3.86). Significant differences were found between levels of psychologicaldistress and substance abuse (H = 14.085; P = .049), people who wished to stay in Spain (t = 6987; P = .049), peoplewho experienced isolation due to COVID-19 contact (t = 1379.5; P = .001), people who needed medical assistance dueto COVID-19 (t = 7.990; P = .018), and those who reported having chronic illnesses (t = 2686.5, P = .02). The meanscore of psychological distress indicates general high levels of psychological distress. Participants who had experiencedisolation due to COVID-19 contact, who consumed substances, and who had chronic illnesses reported the highest levelsof psychological distress.
PB Wolters Kluwer Health
SN 0025-7974
SN 1536-5964 (electrónico)
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23640
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23640
LA eng
NO Gómez-Salgado, J., Carrión-Rico, D., García-Iglesias, J. J., Climent-Rodríguez, J. A., Miranda-Plata, R., Pichardo-Hexamer, R., Navarro-Abal, Y., Fagundo-Rivera, J., Vaca-Acosta, R. M., Ruiz-Frutos, C., & Allande-Cussó, R. (2024). Psychological distress among unemployed migrants settling in southwestern Spain: A cross-sectional study. In Medicine (Vol. 103, Issue 15, p. e37418). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000037418
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026