Study of migratory grief in immigrant patients seen in primary care clinics. Presentation of a migratory grief evaluation questionnaire

• Published in: Atención primaria Vol. 43; no. 9; p. 467
• Main Authors: de la Revilla, Luis, de los Ríos Álvarez, Ana M, Luna del Castillo, Juan de Dios, Gómez García, Mercedes, Valverde Morillas, Carmen, López Torres, Ginesa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01.09.2011
• Subjects: Cross-Sectional Studies; Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology; Grief; Humans; Primary Health Care; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 1578-1275; 1578-1275
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aprim.2010.09.013

To validate a questionnaire designed to show the existence of migratory grief (MG) and its dimensions in the immigrant population, and to study its relationship with certain sociodemographic variables. A descriptive, cross-sectional, multicentre study. Consultations in Primary Health Care. The study included 290 Primary Health Care immigrant patients over 18-years old. There were 12 rejections due to, lack of time, absence of a translator, and lack of understanding. An MG questionnaire with 17 questions was employed, carrying out a factor analysis with final extraction of 4 factors explaining 52.1% of overall variance. Sociodemographic variables were collected: gender, age, marital status, nationality, social network, time in Spain, legal and work situation and communication difficulties. Multivariate analysis was performed using the sociodemographic variables. Four factors were found (fear, homesickness, concern and loss of identity), showing that non-communality was < 0.30 and considering that the 4 factors represent the group of variables from the questionnaire. After analysing the correlations between the different factors, it was observed that concern is related to fear and homesickness, this latter being independent from fear. The loss of identity had a low correlation with other factors. Cronbach's alpha showed good consistency in factors 1, 2 and 3. Some sociodemographic variables are associated with the presence of each factor. We present a validated instrument to study and characterise MG, adapted to study the different dimensions of the grief in immigrant population.