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Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK

BACKGROUND: Visual impairment (V.I.) has been associated with a negative impact on mental health outcomes, including a process of grief among those who lose their sight. Older adults with V.I. who had experienced discrimination have been found to be at increased risk of depression, loneliness, poore...

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Autores principales: Heinze, Nikki, Castle, Claire L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10558210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37808983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277341
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author Heinze, Nikki
Castle, Claire L.
author_facet Heinze, Nikki
Castle, Claire L.
author_sort Heinze, Nikki
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Visual impairment (V.I.) has been associated with a negative impact on mental health outcomes, including a process of grief among those who lose their sight. Older adults with V.I. who had experienced discrimination have been found to be at increased risk of depression, loneliness, poorer life satisfaction and poorer quality of life. Adults from minority ethnic communities (MEC) may be at increased risk of V.I. and yet, research on the experiences of MEC adults with V.I. remains limited. This article forms part of a series which explores issues and status among MEC adults living with V.I. in the UK. METHODS: A secondary analysis of V.I. Lives survey data was performed to explore mental well-being assessed by the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale (SWEMWBS), the emotional impact of V.I., and prejudice and discrimination among a matched control sample of 77 MEC and 77 adults from white communities (WC). Participants were matched by age, gender, UK region and urban/rural setting. Subgroup analyses were also conducted for the two largest MEC subgroups, Asian (n = 46) and black participants (n = 22). RESULTS: There were few statistically significant differences between the groups. MEC participants were significantly more likely than WC participants to rate emotional support to come to terms with their V.I. as important and to feel optimistic about their V.I. but they were significantly less likely to agree that they were receiving the level of emotional support they needed to get on with their life. Within the MEC group, participants from Asian communities had significantly poorer mental well-being, and they were also significantly more likely to agree that the general public were often prejudiced against people with V.I. and less likely to feel optimistic about their V.I. than black participants. CONCLUSION: Although there were few statistically significant differences, participants from Asian communities were more likely to report poor mental and emotional well-being, and experiences of discrimination, than black and white participants. In contrast, participants from black communities fared the same as, or in some cases better than, white participants. Future research will need to confirm these findings and explore reasons for these.
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spelling pubmed-105582102023-10-07 Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK Heinze, Nikki Castle, Claire L. Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Visual impairment (V.I.) has been associated with a negative impact on mental health outcomes, including a process of grief among those who lose their sight. Older adults with V.I. who had experienced discrimination have been found to be at increased risk of depression, loneliness, poorer life satisfaction and poorer quality of life. Adults from minority ethnic communities (MEC) may be at increased risk of V.I. and yet, research on the experiences of MEC adults with V.I. remains limited. This article forms part of a series which explores issues and status among MEC adults living with V.I. in the UK. METHODS: A secondary analysis of V.I. Lives survey data was performed to explore mental well-being assessed by the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale (SWEMWBS), the emotional impact of V.I., and prejudice and discrimination among a matched control sample of 77 MEC and 77 adults from white communities (WC). Participants were matched by age, gender, UK region and urban/rural setting. Subgroup analyses were also conducted for the two largest MEC subgroups, Asian (n = 46) and black participants (n = 22). RESULTS: There were few statistically significant differences between the groups. MEC participants were significantly more likely than WC participants to rate emotional support to come to terms with their V.I. as important and to feel optimistic about their V.I. but they were significantly less likely to agree that they were receiving the level of emotional support they needed to get on with their life. Within the MEC group, participants from Asian communities had significantly poorer mental well-being, and they were also significantly more likely to agree that the general public were often prejudiced against people with V.I. and less likely to feel optimistic about their V.I. than black participants. CONCLUSION: Although there were few statistically significant differences, participants from Asian communities were more likely to report poor mental and emotional well-being, and experiences of discrimination, than black and white participants. In contrast, participants from black communities fared the same as, or in some cases better than, white participants. Future research will need to confirm these findings and explore reasons for these. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10558210/ /pubmed/37808983 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277341 Text en Copyright © 2023 Heinze and Castle. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Heinze, Nikki
Castle, Claire L.
Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title_full Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title_fullStr Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title_full_unstemmed Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title_short Exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the UK
title_sort exploring mental well-being, the emotional impact of visual impairment and experiences of prejudice and discrimination among adults from minority ethnic communities in the uk
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10558210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37808983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277341
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