IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i15p2660-d251601.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating the Provision of Health Services and Barriers to Treatment for Chronic Diseases among Syrian Refugees in Turkey: A Review of Literature and Stakeholder Interviews

Author

Listed:
  • Jude Alawa

    (Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA)

  • Parmida Zarei

    (Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06510, USA)

  • Kaveh Khoshnood

    (Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06510, USA)

Abstract

Background: While Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, the provision of health services for chronic disease among Syrian refugees in Turkey has been inadequate and understudied. This paper explores Turkish healthcare policies surrounding Syrian refugees’ access to health services for chronic diseases. Methods: We conducted a literature review and supplementary stakeholder interviews to evaluate the provision of chronic health services and the most common barriers to healthcare access among Syrian refugees in Turkey. Results: Though access to treatment for displaced Syrians has improved throughout the past five years, five primary barriers persist: registration procedure regulations, navigation of a new health system, language barriers, fear of adverse treatment, and cost. Conclusions: To drive improvements in healthcare for chronic diseases among Syrian refugees in Turkey, we recommend making registration procedures more accessible, developing more healthcare options in patients’ native language, increasing human resources, and advocating for more research surrounding chronic health conditions among refugees.

Suggested Citation

  • Jude Alawa & Parmida Zarei & Kaveh Khoshnood, 2019. "Evaluating the Provision of Health Services and Barriers to Treatment for Chronic Diseases among Syrian Refugees in Turkey: A Review of Literature and Stakeholder Interviews," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-12, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2660-:d:251601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2660/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2660/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Ela Gokalp Aras & Zeynep Şahin Mencütek, 2015. "The international migration and foreign policy nexus: the case of Syrian refugee crisis and Turkey," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 12(3), pages 193-208, September.
    2. Cathy Zimmerman & Ligia Kiss & Mazeda Hossain, 2011. "Migration and Health: A Framework for 21st Century Policy-Making," Working Papers id:4174, eSocialSciences.
    3. Perihan Torun & Meltem Mücaz Karaaslan & Büşra Sandıklı & Ceyda Acar & Ellyn Shurtleff & Sophia Dhrolia & Bülent Herek, 2018. "Health and health care access for Syrian refugees living in İstanbul," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(5), pages 601-608, June.
    4. Basak Bilecen & Dilara Yurtseven, 2018. "Temporarily protected Syrians’ access to the healthcare system in Turkey: Changing policies and remaining challenges," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 15(1), pages 113-124, January.
    5. Cathy Zimmerman & Ligia Kiss & Mazeda Hossain, 2011. "Migration and Health: A Framework for 21st Century Policy-Making," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-7, May.
    6. Shannon Doocy & Emily Lyles & Laila Akhu-Zaheya & Ann Burton & William Weiss, 2016. "Health service utilization and access to medicines among Syrian refugee children in Jordan," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 97-112, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ali Timucin Atayoglu & Yagmur Firat & Nese Kaya & Eda Basmisirli & Asli Gizem Capar & Yusuf Aykemat & Rumeysa Atayolu & Hammad Khan & Ayten Guner Atayoglu & Neriman Inanc, 2023. "Evaluation of Nutritional Status with Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2010) of Syrian Refugees Living Outside the Refugee Camps," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Lupieri, Sigrid, 2022. "‘Vulnerable’ but not ‘Valuable’: Older refugees and perceptions of deservingness in medical humanitarianism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiang Kang & Mingxi Du & Siqin Wang & Haifeng Du, 2022. "Exploring the Effect of Health on Migrants’ Social Integration in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Woranan Witthayapipopsakul & Hathairat Kosiyaporn & Sonvanee Uansri & Rapeepong Suphanchaimat, 2022. "Effect of the Promulgation of the New Migrant’s Employment Law on Migrant Insurance Coverage in Thailand: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis, 2016–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo, 2023. "Health Challenges in Everyday Life of Nigerians in Guangzhou City, China," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1477-1497, September.
    4. Adetayo Olaniyi Adeniran & Samuel Oluwaseyi Olorunfemi & Feyisola Olajire Akinsehinwa & Taye Mohammed Abdullahi, 2021. "Nexus between urban mobility and the transmission of infectious diseases: evidence from empirical review," Post-Print hal-03583997, HAL.
    5. Jordan Edwards & Kelly K. Anderson & Saverio Stranges, 2019. "Migrant mental health, Hickam’s dictum, and the dangers of oversimplification," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(4), pages 477-478, May.
    6. Osnat Keidar & David S. Srivastava & Emmanouil Pikoulis & Aristomenis K. Exadaktylos, 2019. "Health of Refugees and Migrants—Where Do We Stand and What Directions Should We Take?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-8, April.
    7. Silvia Loi & Daniela Vono de Vilhena, 2020. "Exclusion through statistical invisibility. An exploration on what can be known through publicly available datasets on irregular migration and the health status of this population in Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-009, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    8. Lakin, Kimberly & Kane, Sumit, 2022. "Peoples’ expectations of healthcare: A conceptual review and proposed analytical framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    9. Tharani Loganathan & Deng Rui & Chiu-Wan Ng & Nicola Suyin Pocock, 2019. "Breaking down the barriers: Understanding migrant workers’ access to healthcare in Malaysia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, July.
    10. Gracia Fellmeth & Emma Plugge & Mina Fazel & Prakaykaew Charunwattana & François Nosten & Raymond Fitzpatrick & Julie A Simpson & Rose McGready, 2018. "Validation of the Refugee Health Screener-15 for the assessment of perinatal depression among Karen and Burmese women on the Thai-Myanmar border," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Shira M Goldenberg & Andrea Krüsi & Emma Zhang & Jill Chettiar & Kate Shannon, 2017. "Structural Determinants of Health among Im/Migrants in the Indoor Sex Industry: Experiences of Workers and Managers/Owners in Metropolitan Vancouver," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, January.
    12. Alys McAlpine & Ligia Kiss & Cathy Zimmerman & Zaid Chalabi, 2021. "Agent-based modeling for migration and modern slavery research: a systematic review," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 243-332, May.
    13. Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Sanchez-Vaznaugh, Emma V. & Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. & Almeida, Joanna, 2012. "Integrating social epidemiology into immigrant health research: A cross-national framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2060-2068.
    14. Karl Puchner & Evika Karamagioli & Anastasia Pikouli & Costas Tsiamis & Athanasios Kalogeropoulos & Eleni Kakalou & Elena Pavlidou & Emmanouil Pikoulis, 2018. "Time to Rethink Refugee and Migrant Health in Europe: Moving from Emergency Response to Integrated and Individualized Health Care Provision for Migrants and Refugees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-6, May.
    15. Corie Gray & Gemma Crawford & Bruce Maycock & Roanna Lobo, 2022. "Exploring the Intersections of Migration, Gender, and Sexual Health with Indonesian Women in Perth, Western Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Fleischman, Yonina & Willen, Sarah S. & Davidovitch, Nadav & Mor, Zohar, 2015. "Migration as a social determinant of health for irregular migrants: Israel as case study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 89-97.
    17. Arévalo, Sandra P. & Tucker, Katherine L. & Falcón, Luis M., 2015. "Beyond cultural factors to understand immigrant mental health: Neighborhood ethnic density and the moderating role of pre-migration and post-migration factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 91-100.
    18. Xiaoguang Fan & Fei Yan & Wei Yan, 2020. "Better Choice, Better Health? Social Integration and Health Inequality among International Migrants in Hangzhou, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-13, July.
    19. PLoS Medicine Editors, 2011. "Human Trafficking: The Shameful Face of Migration," Working Papers id:4286, eSocialSciences.
    20. Patrick Cloos & Elhadji Malick Ndao & Josephine Aho & Magalie Benoît & Amandine Fillol & Maria Munoz-Bertrand & Marie-Jo Ouimet & Jill Hanley & Valéry Ridde, 2020. "The negative self-perceived health of migrants with precarious status in Montreal, Canada: A cross-sectional study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2660-:d:251601. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.