Last update:
05-Dec-2022

OBJECTIVE To assess the Heath Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of refugees and migrants living in a temporary camp in Greece, and to identify their healthcare needs and the barriers they face in access to health services.

METHOD A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted from June to July 2020. The accessibility and healthcare barriers questionnaires, developed by Ay and colleagues, and the Short-Form-36 (SF-36) to assess HRQoL were administered to 132 residents of the Skaramangas temporary refugee camp in Greece. Descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS), version 21.0.

RESULTS For health care, the participants visited either social clinics (35.8%) or healthcare centers (23.3%), receiving services mostly free of charge (93.2%) and mostly from a general practitioner (56.7%) or an unspecialized doctor (12.5%). High demand for dental services was observed (39.2%), followed by primary health care (PHC) for acute childhood diseases (29.6%), and emergencies (28%). Less in demand were PHC for chronic diseases (12%), hospitalizations (6.4%), family planning counseling (5.6%), and specialist consultation (3.2%). Difficulty of access was reported for dental services, vaccinations and surgeons. The main obstacles reported were of a structural and economic nature, followed by cognitive issues. Higher scores were reported on the physical health subscales of SF-36 than the mental health subscales. Younger age and Afghan origin appeared to have a positive effect on some of the SF-36 scores.

CONCLUSIONS Refugees and migrants report moderate barriers and poor access to healthcare services. The assessment of their HRQoL, according to SF-36, suggests that refugees and migrants are in need of additional psychosocial services to improve their mental health status.

Key words: Barriers, Health care, Quality of life, Refugees.