mental health status of afghan emigrants living in shiraz

emigration and cultural differences in host countries is the cause of the mental disorders increase in emigrants. the purpose of the present study was to assess the mental health status of afghan emigrants living in shiraz. in this study 81 afghan emigrants were selected randomly and were assessed by the general health questionnaire (ghq-2b). data were analyzed using hest, x2, pearson correlation coefficient, and analysis of variance (anova). results showed that the prevalence of mental disorders in this group was 34.6%. there was a significant relationship between age and mental disorder but no significant correlations were observed between the level of education, marital status and mental disorders. the length of time residing in iran was related to a decrease in the level of anxiety. in this study the prevalence of mental disorders in afghan emigrants was higher than the rates reported by different studies for the native populations in various parts of the country.