Fear of deportation is not associated with medical or dental care use among Mexican-origin farmworkers served by a federally-qualified health center--faith-based partnership: an exploratory study.

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers face many health risks with limited access to health care and promotion services. This study explored whether fear of deportation (as a barrier), and church attendance (as an enabling factor), were associated with medical and dental care use among Mexican-origin farmworkers. Interviews were conducted with 179 farmworkers who attended mobile services provided by a local federally-qualified health center (FQHC) in partnership with area churches, during the 2007 agricultural season. The majority of respondents (87 %) were afraid of being deported, and many (74 %) attended church. Although about half of participants reported poor/fair physical (49 %) and dental (58 %) health, only 37 % of farmworkers used medical care and 20 % used dental care during the previous year. Fear of deportation was not associated with use of medical or dental care; while church attendance was associated with use of dental care. Findings suggest that despite high prevalence of fear of deportation, support by FQHCs and churches may enable farmworkers to access health care services.

Cultural and social determinants of health among indigenous Mexican migrants in the United States.

Despite growing numbers, indigenous Mexican migrants are relatively invisible to health practitioners who group them with nonindigenous, mestizo Mexican-origin populations. Associations between indigenous and mestizo cultural identifications with psychosocial characteristics and health indicators among indigenous Mexican migrants were examined. Results revealed gender differences in cultural identifications, perceived discrimination, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and various health indicators including depression severity, culture-bound syndromes, and self-rated health. Multivariate regression and structural equation path modeling demonstrated how indigenous cultural identification and perceived discrimination affects health. Findings suggest that interventions should utilize indigenous community-based activities designed to promote self-esteem and the value of indigenous culture, with a focus on females.

Screening for depression among indigenous Mexican migrant farmworkers using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9.

U.S. farmworkers include growing numbers of individuals from indigenous, pre-Columbian communities in southern Mexico with distinctive languages and cultures. Given the high stress these farmworkers experience in their challenging work environments, they are very susceptible to depression and other mental and emotional health disorders. The present study explores the Spanish version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as a screen for the presence and severity of depression among 123 indigenous Mexican-origin, migrant farmworkers in Oregon. Factor structure and inter-item correlations of the PHQ-9 are examined, along with associations between depression and culture-bound syndromes, self-esteem, self-efficacy, acculturation stress, and other sample psychosocial characteristics. The PHQ-9 exhibited strong factor loadings and internal consistency, and its severity score significantly correlated with other indicators of health status that were observed in previous studies to be significantly associated with depression. The PHQ-9 appears to be culturally relevant for use with Mexicans coming from a variety of indigenous cultures and having very low education and literacy.