Health Care for Refugees in Europe: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Accessing and using health care in European countries pose major challenges for asylum seekers and refugees due to legal, linguistic, administrative, and knowledge barriers. This scoping review will systematically describe the literature regarding health care for asylum seekers and refugees in high-income European countries, and the experiences that they have in accessing and using health care.

Methods: Three databases in the field of public health were systematically searched, from which 1665 studies were selected for title and abstract screening, and 69 full texts were screened for eligibility by the main author. Of these studies, 44 were included in this systematic review. A narrative synthesis was undertaken.

Results: Barriers in access to health care are highly prevalent in refugee populations, and can lead to underusage, misuse of health care, and higher costs. The qualitative results suggest that too little attention is paid to the living situations of refugees. This is especially true in access to care, and in the doctor-patient interaction. This can lead to a gap between needs and care.

Conclusions: Although the problems refugees and asylum seekers face in accessing health care in high-income European countries have long been documented, little has changed over time. Living conditions are a key determinant for accessing health care.

Keywords: access to health care; adult refugees; barriers and facilitators; high-income European countries.

Figure 1

PRSIMA flow chart.