Van Hemelrijck Wanda Monika Johanna, Vandenheede Hadewijch, Argeseanu Cunningham Solveig
Interface Demography - Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
The Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)-KNAW/University of Groningen, The Hague, the Netherlands.
Diabet Med. 2022 Apr;39(4):e14742. doi: 10.1111/dme.14742. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Diabetes poses a heavy burden on patients due to its progressive and chronic nature; it requires continuous management to promote a high-quality and long life. Disease management is especially challenging in emergency settings. We examined how displaced people with diabetes experienced managing their illness before and throughout the process of fleeing their home communities and seeking resettlement in Europe.
We designed an interview instrument with closed- and open-ended questions about diabetes diagnosis and management before fleeing the home country, during migration, stays in transit countries and reception in the European Union. We interviewed 20 asylum-seekers living in Belgian reception centres with diagnosed diabetes mellitus.
Primary topics emerging from interviews were availability, accessibility, and quality. Belgium was described as a setting with high availability, accessibility and quality of diabetes management components (medication, tools, care) compared with other settings before and during migration. Even in Belgium, maintaining a healthy diet as an asylum-seeker was difficult. Other concerns such as safety, other health issues and the asylum request itself often outweighed diabetes management.
Displaced people in non-Western countries need attention for nutrition and diabetes medicine, so aid agencies should consider providing for those needs. For people seeking asylum in the West and living in temporary facilities, care should be paid to the dietary options available for those with diabetes. For irregular migrants, diabetes can be deadly, and resources should be made available for their basic diabetes needs, even if they are not eligible for regular health services.
糖尿病因其渐进性和慢性本质给患者带来沉重负担；需要持续管理以促进高质量的长寿生活。在紧急情况下，疾病管理尤其具有挑战性。我们研究了患有糖尿病的流离失所者在逃离家乡社区并在欧洲寻求重新安置之前及整个过程中是如何管理其疾病的。
我们设计了一份访谈工具，包含关于在逃离祖国之前、移民期间、在过境国停留期间以及在欧盟接受安置期间糖尿病诊断和管理的封闭式和开放式问题。我们采访了20名居住在比利时接待中心且被诊断患有糖尿病的寻求庇护者。
访谈中出现的主要主题是可获得性、可及性和质量。与移民之前和期间的其他环境相比，比利时被描述为糖尿病管理要素（药物、工具、护理）的可获得性、可及性和质量较高的环境。即使在比利时，作为寻求庇护者保持健康饮食也很困难。其他担忧，如安全、其他健康问题以及庇护申请本身，往往比糖尿病管理更为重要。
非西方国家的流离失所者在营养和糖尿病药物方面需要得到关注，因此援助机构应考虑满足这些需求。对于在西方寻求庇护并居住在临时设施中的人，应关注为糖尿病患者提供的饮食选择。对于非法移民，糖尿病可能是致命的，即使他们没有资格获得常规医疗服务，也应为其基本的糖尿病需求提供资源。
