Systematic review: Self‐rated health of Arab immigrants in the United States

Abstract

Purpose A systematic review was conducted to understand self‐rated health (SRH) of Arab immigrants in the United States (U.S.). Background Arab immigrants are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States. There is some evidence that Arab immigrants face health issues including low SRH. However, no study has been done to synthesize research on SRH of Arab immigrants. Methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used to guide this review. A search was conducted on seven databases. Results Six studies met the systematic review criteria. The available evidence indicated that rates of fair/poor SRH among Arab immigrants ranged between 4.66% and 41%. Arabic‐speaking immigrants, women, older immigrants, and socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrants had the highest rates of fair/poor SRH. Implications Health care providers need to assess patient's SRH and identify barriers to optimal health and health practices related to SRH of Arab immigrants.

Serious psychological distress: A national study of Middle Eastern immigrants

“…Data were collected from the NHIS which is one of the largest annual health surveys of non‐institutionalized populations in the United States (CDC, 2019a, 2019b). The NHIS is a major source of data on health issues of the US population since 1957 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019).…”

“…The NHIS is a major source of data on health issues of the US population since 1957 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). It also uses a stratified, multistage, cluster sampling technique that reduces selection bias, helps increase the representativeness of ethnic minorities and includes participants from all regions in the United States (CDC, 2019a, 2019b). In the NHIS, clusters or primary sampling units (PSUs) are nested within the strata.…”

“…Each PSU can be a county or a small group of adjacent counties (CDC, 2017). A detailed study procedure of the NHIS can be found on the CDC‐NHIS website (CDC, 2019a, 2019b).…”

“…Considering these facts, this study aimed at examining whether the family size and presence of children could predict a risk of reporting SPD among Middle Eastern immigrants. The restricted variables as defined by the NHIS were all variables that identify and help recognize a selected sample (CDC, 2019a, 2019b). Region of birth “Middle East,” citizenship, years lived in the United States and Hispanic code “White, non‐Hispanic” were the restricted variables used in this study.…”

“…There is very limited literature on the health of Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States, and the available studies were mostly conducted on small convenient samples in local communities (Alkaid Albqoor, Chen, Weiss, Waters, & Choi, 2019;El-Sayed & Galea, 2009). Research showed that Middle Eastern immigrants have higher rates of loneliness and isolation from society, stress, depression, anxiety and PTSD compared with other immigrant groups and host country's populations (Dallo, Kindratt, & Snell, 2013;Hassan, Rousseau, & Moreau, 2013;Norris, Aroian, & Nickerson, 2011;Povlsen, 2012).…”