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Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The worldwide number of refugees has considerably increased due to ongoing wars, national instability, political persecution and food insecurity. In Europe, about one-third of all refugees are children, an increasing number of which are travelling alone. There are often no systematic med...

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Autores principales: Baauw, Albertine, Kist-van Holthe, Joana, Slattery, Bridget, Heymans, Martijn, Chinapaw, Mai, van Goudoever, Hans
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6782036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31646192
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2019-000516
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author Baauw, Albertine
Kist-van Holthe, Joana
Slattery, Bridget
Heymans, Martijn
Chinapaw, Mai
van Goudoever, Hans
author_facet Baauw, Albertine
Kist-van Holthe, Joana
Slattery, Bridget
Heymans, Martijn
Chinapaw, Mai
van Goudoever, Hans
author_sort Baauw, Albertine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The worldwide number of refugees has considerably increased due to ongoing wars, national instability, political persecution and food insecurity. In Europe, about one-third of all refugees are children, an increasing number of which are travelling alone. There are often no systematic medical health assessments for these refugee children on entry in reception countries despite the fact that they are recognised as an at-risk population due to increased burden of physical and mental health conditions. We aimed to perform a systematic review of the literature to describe the health status of refugee children on entering reception countries. METHODS: A systematic search of published literature was conducted using the terms refugee, immigrant or migrant, medical or health, and screening. RESULTS: Of the 3487 potentially relevant papers, 53 population-based studies were included in this review. This systematic review showed that refugee children exhibit high estimated prevalence rates for anaemia (14%), haemoglobinopathies (4%), chronic hepatitis B (3%), latent tuberculosis infection (11%) and vitamin D deficiency (45%) on entry in reception countries. Approximately one-third of refugee children had intestinal infection. Nutritional problems ranged from wasting and stunting to obesity. CONCLUSIONS: Refugee children entering reception countries should receive comprehensive health assessments based on the outcomes of this systematic review, national budgets, cost-effectiveness and personal factors of the refugees. The health assessment should be tailored to individual child health needs depending on preflight, flight and postarrival conditions. A paradigm shift that places focus on child health and development will help this vulnerable group of children integrate into their new environments. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: 122561.
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spelling pubmed-67820362019-10-23 Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis Baauw, Albertine Kist-van Holthe, Joana Slattery, Bridget Heymans, Martijn Chinapaw, Mai van Goudoever, Hans BMJ Paediatr Open Review BACKGROUND: The worldwide number of refugees has considerably increased due to ongoing wars, national instability, political persecution and food insecurity. In Europe, about one-third of all refugees are children, an increasing number of which are travelling alone. There are often no systematic medical health assessments for these refugee children on entry in reception countries despite the fact that they are recognised as an at-risk population due to increased burden of physical and mental health conditions. We aimed to perform a systematic review of the literature to describe the health status of refugee children on entering reception countries. METHODS: A systematic search of published literature was conducted using the terms refugee, immigrant or migrant, medical or health, and screening. RESULTS: Of the 3487 potentially relevant papers, 53 population-based studies were included in this review. This systematic review showed that refugee children exhibit high estimated prevalence rates for anaemia (14%), haemoglobinopathies (4%), chronic hepatitis B (3%), latent tuberculosis infection (11%) and vitamin D deficiency (45%) on entry in reception countries. Approximately one-third of refugee children had intestinal infection. Nutritional problems ranged from wasting and stunting to obesity. CONCLUSIONS: Refugee children entering reception countries should receive comprehensive health assessments based on the outcomes of this systematic review, national budgets, cost-effectiveness and personal factors of the refugees. The health assessment should be tailored to individual child health needs depending on preflight, flight and postarrival conditions. A paradigm shift that places focus on child health and development will help this vulnerable group of children integrate into their new environments. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: 122561. BMJ Publishing Group 2019-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6782036/ /pubmed/31646192 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2019-000516 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Review
Baauw, Albertine
Kist-van Holthe, Joana
Slattery, Bridget
Heymans, Martijn
Chinapaw, Mai
van Goudoever, Hans
Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_fullStr Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_short Health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_sort health needs of refugee children identified on arrival in reception countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6782036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31646192
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2019-000516
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