Social Stressors and Severity of Somatic Symptoms among Latina Immigrant Women

Abstract

Latina immigrants are exposed to several social stressors including those related to immigration and adjusting to life in the United States. These stressors have been associated with poor mental and physical health including somatic symptoms, which are physical aches and pains associated with distress, depression and anxiety. Our study aimed to describe patterns of social stressors and somatic symptoms in a community-based sample of Latina immigrants. The analysis used baseline data collected from women in 2018-2019 from the Amigas Latinas Motivando el Alma (ALMA) study (N = 107). Social stressors and somatic symptom severity were assessed in an in-person survey conducted by a bilingual interviewer. Frequencies and means of demographic characteristics, social stressors, and somatic symptoms were calculated. Linear regression models estimated the associations between stressors and somatic symptom severity, adjusted for age, education and language. Our sample was mostly older than 40 years (54%), about half of our sample only spoke Spanish (47%) and less than half had a high school degree or equivalent degree (41%). Mild (40%) and moderate (34%) levels of somatic symptom severity were common in our sample. Our study showed that most women experienced low to moderate levels of stress. Higher levels of social stressors were associated with higher levels of somatic symptom severity. All stressors were significantly associated with increased somatic symptom severity, in adjusted models. Very few studies have assessed the prevalence of somatic symptoms and how they are related to stress in Latina immigrant women. With the under-recognized and under-treatment of mental health among Latinas it is important to better understand how Latina immigrants experience these stressors, including the tendency to present distress as physical symptoms.