[Refugee or immigrant children in hospital].

The aim of the study was to gain knowledge of the diagnosis, length of hospital stay, and ethnic background of refugee and immigrant children admitted to the Paediatric Ward at Aker University Hospital in Oslo, and to find out how well the staff and families of the children communicated. 347 children, admitted from ten districts in the immediate vicinity of the hospital, were included in the study. 133 (38%) children had parents who were both born in a non-western country. 44 of the children came from a refugee background and 89 from an immigrant background. The median stay on the Paediatric Ward was three days for the immigrant children and two days for the refugee children and children from Western countries. None of the groups was admitted more frequently than the others. Refugee and immigrant children were most often admitted because of respiratory diseases or obscure symptoms. Communication between the staff and more than 40% of the families with refugee or immigrant backgrounds was not satisfactory. Three out of four mothers and one out of two fathers were unable to communicate well in Norwegian. One third of the mothers had less than six years of school education and one quarter of the immigrant mothers had never attended school.