Disease burden among refugees in camps on mainland Greece, 2016–2017: a retrospective cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of baseline health data for evidence-informed decision-making, these data are rarely available for displaced populations. At the height of the European refugee crisis, most of those seeking asylum in Europe were from regions with high prevalences of communicable and non-communicable diseases. To create an epidemiologic profile for refugees in camps on mainland Greece, this study assessed the prevalence of 11 communicable and non-communicable diseases among refugees utilizing Médecins du Monde (MdM) in-camp clinics. METHODS: The proportional morbidity of selected diseases among individuals utilizing MdM services were determined from data collected at refugee camp clinics on mainland Greece from April 2016 - July 2017. Overall and age-specific proportional morbidities were reported. Differences in disease burden among refugees from the largest sending countries - Afghanistan and Syria - were compared using proportional morbidity ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Patterns in results were compared with disease burden estimates in sending countries and with findings from comparable settings. RESULTS: Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were the most prevalent outcome. Among RTIs, upper RTIs were most common, with a proportional morbidity of nearly 40%; throughout the study period, over 46% of children under 18 years had at least one upper RTI consultation. Musculoskeletal conditions (3.64%), were the most prevalent non-communicable outcome, followed by hypertension (2.21%) and asthma (1.28%). Afghans were 31.68% more likely than Syrians to have a consultation for at least one condition (PR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.25, 1.39). The proportional morbidity of RTIs was comparable to sending countries, but there was a comparatively lower burden of other conditions among refugees than literature estimates from sending countries. CONCLUSION: Refugees utilizing MdM clinics in camps had higher burdens of communicable diseases - predominantly RTIs - relative to non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable disease burdens were comparatively lower than reported prevalences from in-country populations. These findings can be attributed to a range of considerations including differences in demographic profiles between sending countries and refugee populations and missed opportunities for utilizing clinical care. Further investment is needed to capture the health profiles of displaced populations to support evidence-informed decision-making processes in humanitarian emergency responses. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16472-3.