Health Problems and Health Care Seeking Behaviour of Rohingya Refugees

Abstract

Background: Rohingya refugees are one of the most vulnerable group due to lack of health care system, personal hygiene, shelter, sanitation and violence. Aim: The present study aims to find out the health problems and health care seeking behavior of Rohingya Refugees, to identify the socio-demographic information for such exposure group in relation to age, sex, occupation, living areas, to explore the patient's physical, emotional, perceptions, attitudes and environmental health problems and to bring out health care seeking behavior of refugees. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 149 samples were selected conveniently for this study from the refugee camps. Data was collected by using mixed type of questionnaire. Descriptive statistic was used for data analysis which has depicted through tables, pie chart and bar chart. Results: The finding of the study showed that 45.6% participants had multiple problems, followed by 16.8% participants who had other specific problems like musculoskeletal pain, visual problems and peptic ulcer. Urinary tract infection was the leading individual health problem with 11.4% of the sample group having it. 10.7% participants had hypertension, 6% had respiratory tract infection, 3.4% had nutrition deficiency, 4.75% had diabetes mellitus and 1.3% had sanitation & hygiene problems. Among the participants, 68.4% age ranged between 15-59 years. The study showed that, only 16.1% participants were satisfied with the quality of service they received while 37.6% participants said that they needed better services such as more laboratory test, radiological imaging, more medicine and more doctors. Conclusion: It is clear that refugees suffered from a variety of health problems, because their living condition and environmental situation were not similar like an independent nation. Further, basic amenities like medicines and other services were not available.

Expulsion from the Motherland: Association between Depression & Health-Related Quality of Life for Ethnic Rohingya Living with Refugee Status in Bangladesh

“…The occupations of most of the females identified as housewives and males worked in agriculture or labor-based occupations. This is similar to a study that [22] found Rohingya refugees on the Thai border reported agriculture or labor-based occupations. In the refugee camps, more than half of the migrants lived without family, we speculate this may be because of lost family members in the violence prior to migrating from Rakhaine [8, 22 -24].…”

“…The majority of the refugees reported literacy challenges. This was not surprising, as Rohingyas receive almost no support for basic education in Myanmar, nor in Bangladesh [21,22]. The occupations of most of the females identified as housewives and males worked in agriculture or labor-based occupations.…”

Effective maternal, newborn and child health programming among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: Implementation challenges and potential solutions

“…Without a functional referral system, it is not possible to provide comprehensive health care to pregnant women and children on time [26]. Previous studies done in the FDMN camps [30,31] showed that the referral pathway was too convoluted, and there was also underutilization of referral services by the beneficiaries. Our study found that the situation has been improved after the introduction of dedicated vehicle service and referral managers.…”

Superdiversity and Disability: Social Changes for the Cohesion of Migrations in Europe

“…Several studies [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] conducted by Handicap International and other institutions detail the challenges facing refugee care, a situation that can be extrapolated to the different EU countries: Deficit in diagnosing and identifying the care needs of refugees with a disability, which leads to a considerable waste of time and the transfer of these refugees to reception centers that do not have the resources to guarantee adequate treatment. Legal restrictions that prevent refugees with a disability from accessing regular care services.…”