Stress-Related Diagnosis and Barriers to Health Care among Foreign Students: Results of a Survey

Abstract

This survey of 476 college health center directors was made to determine if certain stress-related diagnoses were more prevalent among foreign than domestic students and to identify barriers to health care among foreign students. Previously, a pilot longitudinal study at the University of Southern California (USC) Student Health Center (SHC) revealed that 50 disease entities were significantly increased and 30 were significantly decreased in international students. Further analysis of the diagnoses that may be stress related revealed a greater proportion of those conditions among international students. The findings in this survey of college health centers correlated with the results of the pilot study at USC in two major ways: (1) foreign students had higher frequencies than domestic students in 10 of the stress-related diagnoses; and (2) the barriers to health care found among the USC foreign students were also described by the health center directors. These included language difficulties, different health beliefs, lack of knowledge and acceptance of stress as causes for somatic complaints, and reluctance to see a mental health counselor.