IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijphth/v63y2018i5d10.1007_s00038-018-1096-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health and health care access for Syrian refugees living in İstanbul

Author

Listed:
  • Perihan Torun

    (Bezmialem Vakif University)

  • Meltem Mücaz Karaaslan

    (Bezmialem Vakif University)

  • Büşra Sandıklı

    (Bezmialem Vakif University)

  • Ceyda Acar

    (Bezmialem Vakif University)

  • Ellyn Shurtleff

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Sophia Dhrolia

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Bülent Herek

    (Istanbul Public Health Directorate)

Abstract

Objectives The study was conducted to assess the health needs of urban refugees living in İstanbul. Methods A mixed methods approach was adopted to interview Syrian women from households, doctors, decision makers and NGO representatives. The data were collected between June and October 2015. Results The main challenges were the cost of living in İstanbul, increased rent and language barrier. Almost half (49.6%) of the interviewed women did not know about free health care rights for Syrians. In the last 30 days preceding the interview, 58.6% of the participants sought health care primarily through state hospitals, primary health care centres and pharmacies. The participants had difficulty in accessing health care due to the language barrier and a lack of knowledge of the Turkish health care system. Waiting time at hospitals and negative attitudes of health care staff reduced satisfaction in these services. Conclusions In relation to life in Turkey, the main issues for Syrian refugees were not directly related to health. They have been given the right to access health care, although had many difficulties in understanding and accessing services in a crowded city.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:63:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s00038-018-1096-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00038-018-1096-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00038-018-1096-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00038-018-1096-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oecd, 2013. "Turkey Assessment Report 2013," SIGMA Country Assessment Reports 2013/2, OECD Publishing.
    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. Rayan Korri & Guenter Froeschl & Olena Ivanova, 2021. "A Cross-Sectional Quantitative Study on Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Access to Services of Arab and Kurdish Syrian Refugee Young Women Living in an Urban Setting in Lebanon," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Shima Azizi & Cem Deniz Caglar Bozkir & Andrew C. Trapp & O. Erhun Kundakcioglu & Ali Kaan Kurbanzade, 2021. "Aid Allocation for Camp‐Based and Urban Refugees with Uncertain Demand and Replenishments," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(12), pages 4455-4474, December.
    3. 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.

    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. S Borağan Aruoba & Pablo Cuba-Borda & Frank Schorfheide, 2018. "Macroeconomic Dynamics Near the ZLB: A Tale of Two Countries," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(1), pages 87-118.
    2. Karaveli, Abdullah Bugrahan & Soytas, Ugur & Akinoglu, Bulent G., 2015. "Comparison of large scale solar PV (photovoltaic) and nuclear power plant investments in an emerging market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 656-665.
    3. Seçkin Barış GÜLMEZ, 2019. "Rethinking Euroscepticism in Turkey: Government, Opposition and Public Opinion," Journal of Research in Economics, Politics & Finance, Ersan ERSOY, vol. 5(1), pages 1-22.
    4. Kraemer-Eis, Helmut & Lang, Frank, 2014. "Guidelines for SME Access to Finance Market Assessments (GAFMA)," EIF Working Paper Series 2014/22, European Investment Fund (EIF).

    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:spr:ijphth:v:63:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s00038-018-1096-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.