Occupational life trajectories in the context of chronic pain and immigration

Abstract

Background: Persons with chronic pain report a range of occupational problems. The specific health needs of immigrants are judged to be poorly understood, and health systems are not prepared to respond adequately. Being an immigrant is regarded as a risk factor for the progression of chronic widespread pain into a state of disability.

Objectives: To explore occupational life trajectories among immigrant women with chronic pain.

Material and methods: A qualitative content analysis was used to capture the latent meaning of experiences in individual interviews of eight women with immigrant background and chronic pain.

Results: An overarching theme, ‘making the best of a conditional situation’, representing the women’s occupational life trajectories, covers the content of two categories: ‘being controlled’, including affected self-perception, social relations, and future prospects, and ‘trying to deal with challenges’, comprising a focus on resources, having trust in one’s own judgements and getting help from others.

Conclusion and significance: The experiences demonstrate an occupational life controlled by internal and external factors and may be understood as a disrupted occupational life trajectory. This knowledge may be helpful to occupational therapists supporting immigrant women’s attempts to regain a structured life despite the constant presence of pain.

Keywords:

• Activities of daily living
• long-term pain
• migrant
• occupational therapy
• qualitative method

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Magnus Bergwall Foundation for supporting the study and to reg. OT Sandra Weaver for carrying out the interviews.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.