The Impact of Spousal Migration on the Mental Health of Nepali Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Nirmal Aryal, Pramod R. Regmi, Edwin van Teijlingen, Steven Trenoweth, Pratik Adhikary and Padam Simkhada
Additional contact information
Nirmal Aryal: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH1 3LH, UK
Pramod R. Regmi: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH1 3LH, UK
Edwin van Teijlingen: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH1 3LH, UK
Steven Trenoweth: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH1 3LH, UK
Pratik Adhikary: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA
Padam Simkhada: Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu P.O. Box No. 15201, Nepal

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-10

Abstract: Spousal separation, lack of companionship, and increased household responsibilities may trigger mental health problems in left-behind female spouses of migrant workers. This study aimed to examine mental ill-health risk in the left-behind female spouses of international migrant workers in Nepal. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the Nawalparasi district. Study areas were purposively chosen; however, participants were randomly selected. Nepali versions of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were used. Mental ill-health risk was prevalent in 3.1% of the participants as determined by GHQ. BDI identified mild or moderate depression in 6.5% of the participants with no one having severe depression. In bivariate analysis, a high frequency of communication with the husband was associated with lower mental ill-health risk and depression, as well as increasing resilience. Reduced return intervals of husbands and a high frequency of remittance were also associated with a low GHQ score. In a multiple regression model, adjusting for potential confounding variables, participants who communicated with their husbands at least once a day had a greater mean CD-RISC score (i.e., high resilience against mental ill-health risk) compared to those who did so at least once a week; a mean difference of 3.6 (95% CI 0.4 to 6.9), P = 0.03. To conclude, a low mental ill-health risk was found in the female spouses of migrants.

Keywords: mental health; migrant; left-behind; spouse; depression; resilience; Nepal; low- and middle-income countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1292/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1292/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1292-:d:321745

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().