Chernet Afona, Paris Daniel H, Alchalabi Lujain, Utzinger Jürg, Reus Elisabeth
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Kreuzstrasse 2, CH-4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Healthcare (Basel). 2024 Aug 20;12(16):1654. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12161654.
Prior research has highlighted important healthcare access and utilization issues among new forced immigrants. We aimed to explore the role that public and patient involvement (PPI) might play in enhancing accessibility and specific contributions to migration health studies. We conducted open and in-depth interactive virtual discussions with asylum seekers and refugees from Eritrea and Syria in Switzerland. The PPI establishment consisted of three phases: inception, training and contribution. Prior to training, the concept of PPI was not straightforward to grasp, as it was a new approach-however, after training and consecutive discussions, participants were ardent to engage actively. We conclude that PPI holds promise in regard to raising awareness, improving healthcare system accessibilities and utilization, and enhancing and strengthening migration health research. Indeed, PPI volunteers were keen to raise their community's awareness through their networks and bridge an important gap between researchers and the public.
先前的研究突出了新的被迫移民在医疗保健获取和利用方面的重要问题。我们旨在探讨公众和患者参与（PPI）在提高可及性以及对移民健康研究的具体贡献中可能发挥的作用。我们与瑞士的厄立特里亚和叙利亚寻求庇护者及难民进行了开放且深入的互动式虚拟讨论。PPI的建立包括三个阶段：启动、培训和贡献。在培训之前，PPI的概念并不容易理解，因为这是一种新方法——然而，经过培训和后续讨论后，参与者热衷于积极参与。我们得出结论，PPI在提高认识、改善医疗保健系统的可及性和利用率以及加强和深化移民健康研究方面具有前景。事实上，PPI志愿者渴望通过他们的网络提高其社区的认识，并弥合研究人员与公众之间的重要差距。
