In countries across the globe, some immigrants are twice as likely to contract COVID-19 compared to those born in the country. Throughout the pandemic, immigrants have been disproportionately impacted due to poor housing conditions, jobs that make physical distancing difficult, and lack of access to affordable health care. While experts say multiple measures need to be taken to help immigrant communities receive adequate health care, a study conducted by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University indicates that mobile applications aided by artificial intelligence (AI) may help migrants better address their physical and mental health.
Incorporating AI into health apps “might improve the quality and accuracy of health services and create a better match between immigrants’ needs and the services provided, leading to greater valuable informational capabilities and outcomes,” the study’s author Nick Drydakis, PhD, director of the Centre for Pluralist Economics at Anglia Ruskin University in England, tells Verywell.
“Asylum seekers and refugees, in particular, frequently experience torture or other forms of persecution by their home government,” Dabney P. Evans, PhD, MPH says. She stresses that healthcare providers should keep this in mind when treating patients because the consequent health effects can include “physical injury, but they can also include mental effects which are long-lasting things like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression.”
“Individuals who do not have access to health care and perceive themselves as having a stigmatizing condition are more likely to use health applications for self-diagnosis,” Drydakis says. “Mental health applications reach population groups who might otherwise not have access to mental health or other clinical care.”
Read more at VeryWellHealth.com.
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