Barriers to community health and patient engagement for adult refugees
Citation: Selvan K, Leekha A, Abdelmeguid H, et al. Barriers adult refugees face to community health and patient engagement: a systematic review. Global Public Health. 2022;17(12):3412–25.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: No.
Funding sources: The authors reported no funding for this study.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for qualitative and mixed methods studies on barriers in community health and patient engagement experienced by adult refugees. They searched in November 2021 for articles published in English and found 18 studies, 12 of which were from the USA. This systematic review was registered with PROSPERO, number CRD2022302134.
What was found: The authors identified several barriers to community health and patient engagement faced by refugees. The most consistent barriers were related to cultural norms, pre-departure history, education, and language proficiency. Other barriers noted were stigma, racism, social support, and multi-factorial. Within the literature that focussed on barriers, the authors did not find any initiatives to facilitate engagement.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that barriers to community health and patient engagement in refugee communities can be addressed. The identification of multi-factorial barriers suggests that multi-faceted solutions may be required. The authors suggested that future research should include self-reported evaluations from participants to enable quality improvement of patient engagement services.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of culture, language, and education.
This summary was prepared by Catherine Haynes, checked by Grace Meng and finalized by William Summerskilll.