Predictors of Mental Health Outcomes of Three Refugee Groups in an Advocacy-based Intervention: A Precision Medicine Perspective

Overview

Journal J Consult Clin Psychol

Specialty Psychology

Date 2023 Sep 28

PMID 37768629

Authors

Meredith A Blackwell

Jessica R Goodkind

Elizabeth A Yeater

M Lee Van Horn

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Precision medicine is an area with great potential for mental health, but has made limited gains prognostically in predicting effective treatments. For refugees exposed to violence, culture may be a crucial factor in predicting treatment outcomes.

Method: For this study, 290 participants from three regions (Afghanistan, the Great Lakes region of Africa, and Iraq and Syria) participated in a randomized controlled trial of an advocacy-based intervention. Emotional distress symptoms were measured prior to intervention, midintervention (3 months), postintervention (6 months), and follow-up (6 months after the end of intervention). Number of traumatic events, resource access, social support, and English proficiency were tested for potential predictive effects on intervention outcome.

Results: Multilevel generalized linear models revealed that Afghans' ( = -0.259, = 0.108, = .013), and Great Lakes Africans' ( = -0.116, = 0.057, = .042) emotional distress symptoms improved as a function of the intervention, while Iraqis and Syrians showed no intervention effects. For Afghans, English proficiency ( = -0.453, = 0.157, < .01) and social support ( = -0.179, = 0.086, = .037) were most strongly correlated to emotional distress, while for Africans, resource access ( = -0.483, = 0.082, < .001) and social support ( = -0.100, = 0.048, = .040) were the strongest predictors of emotional distress.

Conclusions: Response to advocacy-based interventions and active ingredients may be influenced by culture; findings have implications for refugees and precision medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

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