Sheikh Mohamud, MacIntyre C Raina
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Ethn Health. 2009 Aug;14(4):393-405. doi: 10.1080/13557850802653780.
To evaluate the impact of intensive promotion of a new health service to a targeted refugee population, recently resettled in Sydney, and the role of early social connection and membership of social group in promoting health service utilisation of refugees.
Descriptive epidemiological study and survey.
A paediatric refugee clinic at a children's hospital in Sydney.
Newly resettled refugee parents of children seen at the clinic.
An intensive health promotion and education campaign using ethnic media and social networks to increase awareness of and encourage utilisation of a new clinical service for refugee children (above and beyond the standard promotion that accompanied the start of the new refugee clinic) to a targeted group of refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Rates of attendance and utilisation of the new service in targeted versus non-targeted refugee parents; changes in health beliefs, health-seeking behaviour and utilisation of services following clinic attendance.
We interviewed 34 Sub-Saharan African refugee parents (intervention) and 12 non-African refugee parents (non-intervention) attending a paediatric refugee clinic, between June 2005 and May 2006, with a total number of 112 children. The mean ages of the children were 12 and 10 years for the Africans and non-Africans, respectively. Our targeted health promotion campaign appeared to be effective in increasing attendance for target communities compared to the non-targeted communities (OR for African families attending clinic 3.0, 95% CI=1.5-6.2, p<0.001). We observed a significant change in parental knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about infectious diseases after attending the clinic, including decreased stigma around tuberculosis, more awareness of the seriousness of some infections, and increased awareness of the role of immunisation in prevention of infectious diseases.
Our study shows that targeted promotion of service to refugee parents is effective. Such efforts may improve access to care for refugees and may constructively change knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about infectious diseases.
评估针对近期在悉尼重新安置的目标难民群体大力推广一项新的健康服务的影响，以及早期社会联系和社会群体成员身份在促进难民利用健康服务方面的作用。
描述性流行病学研究与调查。
悉尼一家儿童医院的儿科难民诊所。
在该诊所就诊的儿童的新安置难民父母。
开展一项强化的健康促进和教育活动，利用民族媒体和社交网络，提高目标群体（撒哈拉以南非洲的难民）对一项为难民儿童提供的新临床服务的认识并鼓励其利用该服务（超出新难民诊所启用时的标准推广活动）。
目标难民父母与非目标难民父母对新服务的就诊率和利用率；就诊后健康观念、求医行为和服务利用情况的变化。
在2005年6月至2006年5月期间，我们采访了34名在儿科难民诊所就诊的撒哈拉以南非洲难民父母（干预组）和12名非非洲难民父母（非干预组），共有112名儿童。非洲儿童和非非洲儿童的平均年龄分别为12岁和10岁。与非目标社区相比，我们有针对性的健康促进活动似乎在提高目标社区的就诊率方面有效（非洲家庭就诊诊所的比值比为3.0，95%置信区间=1.5-6.2，p<0.001）。我们观察到父母在就诊后对传染病的知识、态度和观念有显著变化，包括对结核病的耻辱感降低、对某些感染严重性的认识提高，以及对免疫接种在预防传染病中作用的认识增强。
我们的研究表明，针对难民父母有针对性地推广服务是有效的。此类努力可能改善难民获得医疗服务的机会，并可能建设性地改变对传染病的知识、态度和观念。
