Health-related quality of life among Mexican-origin Latinos: the role of immigration legal status

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the relationship between immigration legal status and related vulnerabilities and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among Mexican-origin Latinos living in a U.S.-Mexico border region.

Methods: Data were obtained using multistage sampling from 393 Latino adults who took part in the 2009 San Diego Prevention Research Center community survey.

Results: Significant differences in HRQoL were found across immigration legal status subgroups. Vulnerabilities associated with HRQoL varied across immigration legal status subgroups, and only depression was associated with HRQoL regardless of immigration legal status.

Conclusion: Results from this study emphasize the need for policies and programs to facilitate access to preventive services, including mental health services, in order to maintain the health of at-risk Latino immigrants.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinos
• immigration legal status
• undocumented
• health
• quality of life

Acknowledgements

Our research was approved by the San Diego State University and University of California San Diego Institutional Review Boards and all procedure followed were in accordance with the respective ethical standards and the Helsinki Declaration of 1974, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants being included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the parent study data collection was provided by the San Diego Prevention Research Center (Research Core PI: Guadalupe X. Ayala) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [grant number U48 DP00036-03], [grant number U48DP001917-01]. A/Prof Andre Renzaho is supported by an Australian Research Council [grant number FT110100345].