Articles

Prevalence of non-communicable diseases and associated medication use among Syrian refugees in Lebanon: an analysis of country-wide data from the Sijilli electronic health records database

Globally, the number of forcibly displaced individuals has reached 70.8 million. Lebanon, a middle income country, hosts the highest number of refugees per capita worldwide. The majority of refugees are Syrian...

Authors: Shadi Saleh, Lina Abdouni, Hani Dimassi, Dana Nabulsi, Ranime Harb, Zeinab Jammoul, Noha Hachach and Nour El Arnaout

Resilience of health systems in conflict affected governorates of Iraq, 2014–2018

The objective of this study was to assess the resilience of health systems in four governorates affected by conflict from 2014 to 2018, and to convey recommendations.

Authors: Shaimaa Ibrahim, Sara Al-Dahir, Taha Al Mulla, Faris Lami, S. M. Moazzem Hossain, Abdullah Baqui and Gilbert Burnham

The impact of article processing charge waiver on conducting research in low-income countries

Health sciences research is a major tool in exchanging publications and knowledge between the various countries of the world. Researchers in developing countries barely have any financial funding from governme...

Authors: M-Nasan Abdul Baki and Mahmoud Alhaj Hussein

Mental health of women and children experiencing family violence in conflict settings: a mixed methods systematic review

Armed conflict has significant impacts on individuals and families living in conflict-affected settings globally. Scholars working to prevent violence within families have hypothesised that experiencing armed ...

Authors: Delan Devakumar, Alexis Palfreyman, Amaran Uthayakumar-Cumarasamy, Nazifa Ullah, Chavini Ranasinghe, Nicole Minckas, Abhijit Nadkarni, Sian Oram, David Osrin and Jenevieve Mannell

Cultural adaptation of a scalable psychological intervention for Burundian refugee adolescents in Tanzania: a qualitative study

There is an urgent need for evidence-based, scalable, psychological interventions to improve the mental health of adolescents affected by adversity in low-resource settings. Early Adolescents Skills for Emotio...

Authors: Aneeha Singh, Ashley Nemiro, Aiysha Malik, Marie-France Guimond, Estella Nduwimana, Samuel Likindikoki, Jeannie Annan and Wietse A. Tol

Measuring mental health in humanitarian crises: a practitioner’s guide to validity

There are ongoing methodological advances in measuring mental health in humanitarian crises. This Special Section describes numerous innovations. Here we take a practitioner's view in understanding the key iss...

Authors: Brandon A. Kohrt and Bonnie N. Kaiser

Priorities for addressing substance use disorder in humanitarian settings

Populations affected by humanitarian emergencies are vulnerable to substance (alcohol and other drug) use disorders, yet treatment and prevention services are scarce. Delivering substance use disorder treatmen...

Authors: M. Claire Greene, Stephanie Haddad, Anja Busse, Nadine Ezard, Peter Ventevogel, Lina Demis, Sachi Inoue, Jan-Christopher Gumm, Giovanna Campello, Wietse A. Tol and Jeremy C. Kane

COVID-19 and multiple crises in Afghanistan: an urgent battle

The political and military advance of the Taliban, reduced healthcare capacity, and imminent humanitarian crisis risk exacerbating an already very serious threat posed by COVID-19 in Afghanistan. The continued...

Authors: Mohammad Yasir Essar, Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, Zarmina Islam, Mehr Muhammad Adeel Riaz, Abdullahi Tunde Aborode and Shoaib Ahmad

Sanctioned countries in the global COVID-19 vaccination campaign: the forgotten 70%

COVAX, the global initiative on COVID-19 vaccines, has set the target of achieving a COVID-19 vaccination coverage of up to 30% of the population of 135 countries in 2 years. Here, we argue that COVAX should a...

Authors: Karl Blanchet, Grégoire Mallard, Erica Moret and Jin Sun

Learning from health information challenges in the Central African Republic: where documenting health and humanitarian needs requires fresh approaches

The Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries. Maybe there is no nation on the planet where the official health statistics are so poor. Evidence presented in this ...

Authors: Anna Kuehne and Leslie Roberts

An assessment of the quality of care provided at primary health care centres in camps for internally displaced persons in Iraq in 2018

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq remains one of the largest and most unstable in the world. In 2014, over 2.5 million civilians were displaced in Iraq; between 2015 and 2017 more than 3 million people continued...

Authors: Muhammad Fawad Khan, Daniel Jeannetot, Kamal Sunil Olleri, Mirjam Bakker, Altaf Sadrudin Musani, Adham Rashad Ismail Abdel Moneim, Wael Hatahit and Prisca Zwanikken

Addressing the COVID-19 emergency during the ongoing political and economic crisis in Fragile Lebanon: a call to action

This Letter to the Editor aims to reflect on the current challenges to increase the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in the fragile and conflict-affected setting of Lebanon, which is currently experiencing one...

Authors: Ludmila Lobkowicz, Julien Lahoud and Ibrahim Bou-Orm

The adaptation of Turkish health literacy scale for literate Syrian adult refugees living in Turkey: a reliability–validity study

Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population of whom 3.5 million are Syrians and this population has been continuously growing since the year 2011. This situation causes various problems, mainly while r...

Authors: Şevkat Bahar Özvarış, Bahar Güçiz Doğan, Hande Konşuk Ünlü, Gamze Aktuna, Tacettin İnandı, A. Öner Kurt, Neriman Aydın and M. Tezer Kutluk

Research as usual in humanitarian settings? Equalising power in academic-NGO research partnerships through co-production

Research partnerships in conflict-affected and humanitarian settings can reveal complex power hierarchies between academics and NGOs. During the process of research, decision-making may skew in favour of more ...

Authors: Michelle Lokot and Caitlin Wake

The impact of a community based rehabilitation program in Afghanistan: a longitudinal analysis using propensity score matching and difference in difference analysis

The 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that the achievement of equal rights, empowerment and social inclusion of people with disabilities requires comprehensive re...

Authors: Jean-Francois Trani, Juanita Vasquez-Escallon and Parul Bakhshi

A mathematical model to estimate the incidence of child wasting in Yemen

The ongoing civil war in Yemen has severely restricted imports of food and fuel, disrupted livelihoods and displaced millions, worsening already high pre-war levels of food insecurity. Paired with frequent out...

Authors: Rana A. Hussein, Mark P. Suprenant, Najwa Al-Dheeb, Saul Guerrero, Eleanor Rogers, Fouzia Shafique, Meredith Dyson and Muhammad H. Zaman

The status of emergency obstetric and newborn care in post-conflict eastern DRC: a facility-level cross-sectional study

Pregnancy-related mortality remains persistently higher in post-conflict areas. Part of the blame lies with continued disruption to vital care provision, especially emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC)...

Authors: Serge-André Mizerero, Calistus Wilunda, Patou Masika Musumari, Masako Ono-Kihara, Gerrye Mubungu, Masahiro Kihara and Takeo Nakayama

Conflict affected, parallel health systems: challenges to collaboration between ethnic and government health systems in Kayin State, Myanmar

Myanmar has had a long history of civil wars with its minority ethnic groups and is yet to see a sustainable peace accord. The conflicts have had a significant impact on health in Myanmar, with ethnic populati...

Authors: Colette Pang Biesty, Aung Ja Brang and Barry Munslow

Trends in sexual violence patterns and case management: a sex disaggregated analysis in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo

Both conflict and non-conflict sexual violence have been well described in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). However, there is little empiric data comparing sexual violence patterns for males and females...

Authors: Justin Paluku Lussy, Annie Dube, Jonathan Kasereka M. Lusi, Aurélien Mahamba Kikoli, Eugénie Kamabu Mukekulu and Susan A. Bartels

Using a community-based system dynamics approach for understanding inclusion and wellbeing: a case study of special needs education in an eastern African refugee camp

Children with disabilities face unique challenges in humanitarian aid settings and education may provide protective measures against abuse and exploitation. There are growing calls for inclusive education of c...

Authors: Kelsey Werner, Gregory St. Arnold and Thomas M. Crea

A call to safeguard sexual and reproductive health information and services during Ebola outbreaks

The recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in 2021 exemplify how sexual and reproductive health services are too often considered unessential during health emergencies. Bleeding for reasons other than EVD,...

Authors: Nguyen Toan Tran, Désirée Lichtenstein, Benjamin Black, Alice Rosmini and Catrin Schulte-Hillen

Measuring self-reliance among refugee and internally displaced households: the development of an index in humanitarian settings

Humanitarian practitioners have recently expanded their focus from the provision of assistance only to working to ensure refugees and internally displaced peoples (IDPs) can develop sustained ‘self-reliance’. ...

Authors: Ilana Seff, Kellie Leeson and Lindsay Stark

Built-environment attributes associated with refugee children’s physical activity: a narrative review and research agenda

Research has identified built environmental attributes associated with children’s physical activity (PA); however, less is known for environmental correlates of refugee children’s PA. This narrative review summar...

Authors: Siqi Chen, Alison Carver, Takemi Sugiyama and Martin Knöll

Community-based surveillance in internally displaced people’s camps and urban settings during a complex emergency in Yemen in 2020

The need for early identification of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in communities was high in Yemen during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic because most cases presenting to health facilities were...

Authors: Manal Salem Omar Baaees, Jeremias D. Naiene, Ali Ahmed Al-Waleedi, Nasreen Salem Bin-Azoon, Muhammad Fawad Khan, Nuha Mahmoud and Altaf Musani

Prevalence and risk factors for hypertension and diabetes among those screened in a refugee settlement in Uganda

Diabetes and hypertension are increasingly prevalent in low and middle income countries, but they are not well documented in refugee settlements in these settings. We sought to estimate the prevalence and asso...

Authors: Rachel W. Kubiak, Elinor M. Sveum, Zikama Faustin, Timothy Muwonge, Hussain Abbas Zaidi, Andrew Kambugu, Simon Masereka, Julius Kasozi, Ingrid V. Bassett and Kelli N. O’Laughlin

Comparative analysis of the health status of the population in six health zones in South Kivu: a cross-sectional population study using the WHODAS

The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced decades-long armed conflicts which have had a negative impact on population’s health. Most research in public health explores measures that focus ...

Authors: Samuel Lwamushi Makali, Espoir Bwenge Malembaka, Anne-Sophie Lambert, Hermès Bimana Karemere, Christian Molima Eboma, Albert Tambwe Mwembo, Steven Barnes Ssali, Ghislain Bisimwa Balaluka, Phillippe Donnen and Jean Macq

Rapid mental health screening in conflict zones: a translation and cross-cultural adaptation into Arabic of the shortened Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS-25)

During conflict, children and adolescents are at increased risk of mental health problems and in particular, anxiety and depression. However, mental health screening in conflict settings is problematic and car...

Authors: Jon D. Perkins and Julieta Alós

Mortality beyond emergency threshold in a silent crisis– results from a population-based mortality survey in Ouaka prefecture, Central African Republic, 2020

The Central African Republic (CAR) suffers a protracted conflict and has the second lowest human development index in the world. Available mortality estimates vary and differ in methodology. We undertook a ret...

Authors: Eve Robinson, Lawrence Lee, Leslie F. Roberts, Aurelie Poelhekke, Xavier Charles, Adelaide Ouabo, Jorieke Vyncke, Cono Ariti, Mariette Claudia Adame Gbanzi, Martial Tanguy Ouakouma, Nell Gray, Maura Daly, Kate White, Sam Templeman, Mia Hejdenberg, Maaike Hersevoort…

Correction to: Introduction to collection: confronting the challenges of health research in humanitarian crises

Authors: Amit S. Mistry, Brandon A. Kohrt, Blythe Beecroft, Nalini Anand and Iman Nuwayhid

Surveys about attended births appear to be deceptive in CAR: are the population saying what they think NGO’s want to hear?

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donors often promote certain practices to a community, such as in-facility births and then evaluate the efficacy of those interventions, in part, by surveying those po...

Authors: Philippe Wol, Christina Kay and Leslie Roberts

Lockdowns, lives and livelihoods: the impact of COVID-19 and public health responses to conflict affected populations - a remote qualitative study in Baidoa and Mogadishu, Somalia

Authorities in Somalia responded with drastic measures after the first confirmed COVID-19 case in mid-March 2020, closing borders, schools, limiting travel and prohibiting most group functions. However, the im...

Authors: Dorien H. Braam, Sharath Srinivasan, Luke Church, Zakaria Sheikh, Freya L. Jephcott and Salome Bukachi

Correction to: Musculoskeletal impairment among Syrian refugees living in Sultanbeyli, Turkey: prevalence, cause, diagnosis and need for related services and assistive products

Authors: Dorothy Boggs, Oluwarantimi Atijosan-Ayodele, Hisem Yonso, Nathaniel Scherer, Timothy O’Fallon, Gülten Deniz, Selin Volkan, Ahmed Örücü, Isotta Pivato, Ammar Hasan Beck, İbrahim Akıncı, Hannah Kuper, Allen Foster, Andrea Patterson and Sarah Polack

“I try the one that they say is good.” - factors influencing choice of health care provider and pathways to diabetes care for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Navigating health systems in host countries can be a challenge for refugees, particularly in a multi-provider system such as Lebanon. Syrian refugees in Lebanon face a high burden of Non-Communicable Diseases ...

Authors: Flora Haderer, Emilie Venables, Josefien van Olmen, Miriam Orcutt, Michella Ghassibe-Sabbagh and Wilma van den Boogaard

Health-related quality of life of refugees: a systematic review of studies using the WHOQOL-Bref instrument in general and clinical refugee populations in the community setting

To systematically review studies on HRQOL, measured by the WHOQOL-Bref instrument, of refugees in general and clinical populations who are settled in the community of the hosting country, and outline the diffe...

Authors: Juliette Gagliardi, Christian Brettschneider and Hans-Helmut König

Legacies of humanitarian neglect: long term experiences of children who returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda

Much has been written about the short-term challenges facing children returning ‘home’ from rebel fighting groups, but little is known about the longer term day to day realities of return. This article present...

Authors: Melissa Parker, Cristin A. Fergus, Charlotte Brown, Dorothy Atim, James Ocitti, Jackline Atingo and Tim Allen

Conflict-related violence and mental health among self-settled Democratic Republic of Congo female refugees in Kampala, Uganda – a respondent driven sampling survey

Violence and traumatic events are highly prevalent among refugees, but less is known about the impact of these experiences among self-settled refugees in the country of asylum. We evaluated the association bet...

Authors: Itziar Familiar, Pamela Nasirumbi Muniina, Chris Dolan, Moses Ogwal, David Serwadda, Herbert Kiyingi, Chantal Siya Bahinduka, Enos Sande and Wolfgang Hladik

Improving diabetes control for Syrian refugees in Jordan: a longitudinal cohort study comparing the effects of cash transfers and health education interventions

Cash transfers are an increasingly common intervention in the Syrian refugee response to meet basic needs, though there is little known of their potential secondary impact on health outcomes in humanitarian se...

Authors: By Emily Lyles, Stephen Chua, Yasmeen Barham, Kayla Pfieffer-Mundt, Paul Spiegel, Ann Burton and Shannon Doocy

Adolescent access to health services in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: The case of the Gaza Strip

Enjoyment of physical and mental health is not only recognized as a human right but also as an integral part of development, as reflected in Sustainable Development Goal 3 – to ensure healthy lives and promote...

Authors: Bassam Abu Hamad, Nicola Jones and Ingrid Gercama

Tools for measuring gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) indicators in humanitarian settings

Effective measurement of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) is challenging in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and even more so in humanitarian settings. Conflict, natural disasters, and ep...

Authors: Céline M. Goulart, Amber Purewal, Humaira Nakhuda, Anita Ampadu, Amanda Giancola, Jean-Luc Kortenaar and Diego G. Bassani

Introduction to collection: confronting the challenges of health research in humanitarian crises

Humanitarian crises, such as armed conflict, forced displacement, natural disasters, and major disease outbreaks, take a staggering toll on human health, especially in low-resource settings. Yet there is a dea...

Authors: Amit S. Mistry, Brandon A. Kohrt, Blythe Beecroft, Nalini Anand and Iman Nuwayhid

Violence against healthcare in conflict: a systematic review of the literature and agenda for future research

Attacks on health care in armed conflict, including those on health workers, facilities, patients and transports, represent serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Information ab...

Authors: Rohini J. Haar, Róisín Read, Larissa Fast, Karl Blanchet, Stephanie Rinaldi, Bertrand Taithe, Christina Wille and Leonard S. Rubenstein

Policies on return and reintegration of displaced healthcare workers towards rebuilding conflict-affected health systems: a review for The Lancet-AUB Commission on Syria

War and armed conflicts severely disrupt all health system components, including the healthcare workforce. Although data is limited on the scale of health care worker (HCW) displacement in conflict zones, it i...

Authors: Diana Rayes, Lana Meiqari, Rouham Yamout, Aula Abbara, Iman Nuwayhid, Samer Jabbour and Marian Abouzeid

An exploratory pilot study of the effect of modified hygiene kits on handwashing with soap among internally displaced persons in Ethiopia

Internally displaced persons fleeing their homes due to conflict and drought are particularly at risk of morbidity and mortality from diarrhoeal diseases. Regular handwashing with soap (HWWS) could substantial...

Authors: Astrid Hasund Thorseth, Thomas Heath, Andualem Sisay, Mare Hamo and Sian White

COVID-19 in conflict border regions: a case of South Kordofan, Sudan

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported in Sudan on 13 March 2020. Since then, Sudan has experienced one of the highest rates of COVID-19 spread and fatalities in Africa. One year later, as...

Authors: Quraish Sserwanja, Mohammed Bashir Adam, Joseph Kawuki and Emmanuel Olal

“Strengthening data quality and reporting from small-scale surveys in humanitarian settings: a case study from Yemen, 2011–2019”

Under-five death rate is one of the major indicators used in assessing the level of needs and severity of humanitarian crisis. Over the years, a number of small-scale surveys based on Standardized Monitoring a...

Authors: Thomas Jideofor Ogbu and Debarati Guha-Sapir

Migrant children in transit: health profile and social needs of unaccompanied and accompanied children visiting the MSF clinic in Belgrade, Serbia

Thousands of children migrate to Europe each year in search of safety and the promise of a better life. Many of them transited through Serbia in 2018. Children journey alone or along with their family members ...

Authors: Tijana Topalovic, Maria Episkopou, Erin Schillberg, Jelena Brcanski and Milica Jocic

Conducting research on building psychosocial support for Syrian refugee families in a humanitarian emergency

This case study describes research, which is located in Turkey, where more than 750,000 Syrian refugees reside autonomously in Istanbul. The research developed and pilot tested a novel model for helping urban ...

Authors: Stevan Merill Weine, Aliriza Arënliu, Vahdet Görmez, Scott Lagenecker and Hakan Demirtas

Lay-delivered talk therapies for adults affected by humanitarian crises in low- and middle-income countries

Published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2015, the mental health Gap Action Programme Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG) recommends...

Authors: Grace K. Ryan, Andreas Bauer, Tarik Endale, Onaiza Qureshi, Asmae Doukani, Arlinda Cerga-Pashoja, Savvy K. Brar, Julian Eaton and Judith K. Bass

Musculoskeletal impairment among Syrian refugees living in Sultanbeyli, Turkey: prevalence, cause, diagnosis and need for related services and assistive products

Epidemiological data on musculoskeletal impairment (MSI) and related service and assistive product (AP) needs for displaced populations are lacking. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence, aetiology, and ...

Authors: Dorothy Boggs, Oluwarantimi Atijosan-Ayodele, Hisem Yonso, Nathaniel Scherer, Timothy O’Fallon, Gülten Deniz, Selin Volkan, Ahmed Örücü, Isotta Pivato, Ammar Hasan Beck, İbrahim Akıncı, Hannah Kuper, Allen Foster, Andrea Patterson and Sarah Polack

‘We need someone to deliver our voices’: reflections from conducting remote qualitative research in Syria

The need to generate evidence in spaces considered insecure and inhabited by potentially extremely vulnerable individuals (e.g. conflict-affected people who may not have means to move) has led researchers to s...

Authors: Yazan Douedari, Mervat Alhaffar, Diane Duclos, Mohamed Al-Twaish, Samer Jabbour and Natasha Howard