Background
Forced displacement related
to persecution and violent conflict has reached a new peak in recent years. The
primary aim of this study is to provide an initial overview of the acute and
chronic health care problems of asylum seekers from the Middle East, with
special emphasis on asylum seekers from Syria.
Methods
Our retrospective data
analysis comprised adult patients presenting to our emergency department
between 01.11.2011 and 30.06.2014 with the official resident status of an
“asylum seeker” or “refugee” from the Middle East.
Results
In total, 880 patients
were included in the study. Of these, 625 (71.0%) were male and 255 (29.0%)
female. The median age was 34 (range 16–84). 222 (25.2%) of our patients were
from Syria. The most common reason for presentation was surgical (381, 43.3%),
followed by medical (321, 36.5%) and psychiatric (137, 15.6%). In patients with
surgical presentations, trauma-related problems were most common (n = 196,
50.6%). Within the group of patients with medical presentation, acute
infectious diseases were most common (n = 141, 43.9%), followed by neurological
problems (n = 70, 21.8%) and gastrointestinal problems (n = 47, 14.6%). There
were no differences between Syrian and non-Syrian refugees concerning surgical
or medical admissions. The most common chronic disorder of unclear significance
was chronic gastrointestinal problems (n = 132, 15%), followed by chronic
musculoskeletal problems (n = 108, 12.3%) and chronic headaches (n = 78, 8.9%).
Patients from Syria were significantly younger and more often suffered from a
post-traumatic stress disorder than patients of other nationalities
(p<0.0001, and p = 0.05, respectively).
Conclusion
Overall a remarkable
number of our very young group of patients suffered from psychiatric disorders
and unspecified somatic symptoms. Asylum seekers should be carefully evaluated
when presenting to a medical facility and physicians should be aware of the
high incidence of unspecified somatic symptoms in this patient population.In
general, there is no major difference between asylum seekers from Syria when
compared to other nationalities of asylum seekers from the Middle East.
Below: Overview of patients' origins
Below: Number of patients presenting to emergency department by year and country of origin
Below: Overview of psychiatric co-morbidities by country of origin
Full article at: http://goo.gl/b3lkMD
By:
1Department of General Anaesthesiology,
Intensive Care and Pain Management, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna,
Austria
2University Department of Emergency
Medicine, University Hospital and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
3University Hospital of Psychiatry and
University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Queensland
University of Technology, AUSTRALIA
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no
competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: CAP TM
AKE. Performed the experiments: CAP MS TM BL. Analyzed the data: CAP AKE. Wrote
the paper: CAP MS TM BL AKE.
* E-mail: moc.liamg@relleumtrofpc
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv insight
No comments:
Post a Comment