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Post-migration well-being of Sub-Saharan Africans in China: a nationwide cross-sectional survey

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the quality of life (QOL) among Sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrants and explore the factors that contribute to and shape SSA migrants’ QOL and shed light on how post-migration factors affect their QOL in China.

Methods

We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional survey on QOL of SSA migrants in China from August, 2019 to November, 2019. We recruited SSA migrants using a combination of peer-referred online and offline surveys. The WHOQOL-BREF scale assessed the QOL of participants, and depressive symptoms were measured using Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. Correlates of well-being including depressive symptoms, migration-related factors, and socio-demographic characteristics were included in hierarchical linear regression models to explore the contributions of these factors on QOL of SSA migrants.

Results

This study included 928 eligible SSA migrants. The total score of the WHOQOL-BREF scale was 66.8 ± 14.0. Attitudes of local people toward SSA migrants (β = 3.1, 95% CI 2.4, 3.0) and satisfaction with their living conditions (β = 3.6, 95% CI 2.5, 4.7) were positively associated with QOL and explained 12.2% of the variance. Contracting an infectious disease in the past year (β = − 5.3, 95% CI − 7.6, − 2.9) and depression werenegatively associated with QOL (β = − 0.7, 95% CI − 0.7, − 0.6) and explained 24.4% of the variance.

Conclusion

Our study underscores the importance of several key factors that may aid in the improvement of QOL among SSA migrants. Post-migration environmental factors emerged as key correlates of QOL, which builds on previous evidence that the post-migration context should be improved to safeguard the well-being of SSA migrants in China.

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Data availability

The data can be obtained upon a request to the corresponding author (Cheng Wang).

Code availability

The code can be obtained upon a request to the first author of this paper (Xia Zou).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the presidents, clinical staff, and members of the African communities for their help during the study recruitment.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81703319).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Xia Zou

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Macau, China

    Brian J. Hall

  3. Dermatology Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    Mingzhou Xiong & Cheng Wang

  4. Southern Medical University Institute for Global Health and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Mingzhou Xiong & Cheng Wang

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  1. Xia Zou
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Contributions

CW designed the study. XZ and BH conceived the paper. MX conducted the data collection. XZ conducted data analysis and drafted the paper. XZ, CW, BH, and MX contributed to revise the paper. All authors have read and approved the final paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheng Wang.

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Conflict of interest

We declare no competing interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the ethical committee of the Dermatology Hospital of the Southern Medical University (No. GDDHLS-20181203).

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Zou, X., Hall, B.J., Xiong, M. et al. Post-migration well-being of Sub-Saharan Africans in China: a nationwide cross-sectional survey. Qual Life Res 30, 1025–1035 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02663-7

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