Abstract

• Immigration of Koreans to the United States has increased since the 1960's. Adjusting to life in the United States produces a great deal of stress for immigrants. Despite better economic opportunities, many see the U.S. culture as threatening to their family and cultural values. Differences in culture, language, expectations and social behavior can lead to misunderstandings between health care providers and clients. These misunderstanding can lead to frustration on the part of each. The ultimate result of this is that often Korea-immigrants do not get their health care needs met and stress response symptoms can lead to disease if there is no appropriate care. To determine the health care needs and concerns of Korean-Americans, a health needs assessment is needed. Appropriate and adequate information about the health care needs of these of these individuals is important as it relates to American policy changes allowing greater numbers of immigrants to enter the U.S. The purpose of this prospective study was to describe Korean-American stress response. This study focused on the primary presenting problems for which subjects reported having sought care. These included a variety of stress-reported symptoms, including peripheral manifestations, cardiopulmonary symptoms, central-neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, muscle tension, habitual patterns, depression, anxiety, emotional irritability and cognitive disorganization. Of the 300 subjects who entered the study, 80%(N=223) completed the questionnaire in full. Demographically, the percentage of females and males was 50% each and they ranged in age from 20 to 69 years. Ninety percent of the subjects were highly educated, 25% owners of business, 25% white collar professionals, 15% employed in sales or as skilled/unskilled labor, 30% had no occupation ; and 5% were housewives or students. The SOS inventory is designed to quantify self-perception of behavioral, cognitive, and physiological components of the stress response. It consisted of 94 items divided into 10 subscales. The result of this study are as follows : The total mean SOS of all subjects(N=223 was .8129 ; the mean SOS for male(N=114) was .7665 and for females, (N=108) .8594. The level of symptoms for central-neurologic and muscle tension was higher for than for males. The highest stress response of all subjects was emotional irritability symptoms(1.0644) ; the lowest stress response on all subjects was peripheral manifestation symptoms.

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