Symptom profiles of treatment-seeking traumatized refugees in the Netherlands: a latent class analysis.

Abstract

The number of refugees is increasing. They are often exposed to traumatic events, making them at risk for many psychological symptoms. This study acquired insight in this variety of symptoms by performing a profile analysis among treatment-seeking refugees, whilst comparing this with natives and looking at predictors of class membership. Participants were 1232 refugee and 2244 Dutch treatment-seeking traumatized individuals. Latent class analysis was conducted on the Brief Symptom Inventory. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify predictors of class membership. Three subgroups were defined that differentiated in the amount of reported symptoms: moderate, high, and extremely high amount of symptoms. In the Dutch sample, similar subgroups were found. Greater exposure to traumatic events was related to membership of classes with more symptoms. Sexual assault was related to membership of classes with more symptoms in the Dutch sample but not in the refugee sample. Other unwanted sexual experiences did not predict class membership. This is the first study conducting an LCA among refugees across the full range of psychopathological symptoms and shows that subgroups can be defined in quantitative, and not in qualitative terms.