Perinatal Data of Women with and without Refugee Status in Berlin - Results of a Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

In Germany,1.2 million asylum seekers have entered the country in 2015-2016. More than a third of these asylum seekers were women. To understand the situation of asylum seekers' pregnancies, we examined the primary health care of this particular group to understand what, if anything, needs to improve to make the German health system more accessible to pregnant asylum seekers. we examined 960 cases of pregnant women who delivered in 2 large maternity clinics in Berlin-Charité between January 2016-August 2017. In our comparative cross-sectional study, we compared 480 asylum-seeking women with 480 local German women. For both patient populations we acquired data on various parameters. We found only two significant differences: (1) The number of antenatal appointments attended by refugee women during their pregnancy was lower than that of the control group. The average number of antenatal appointments in the local control group was 10.6 (Max.: 27, SD 2.85, Min: 2); the refugee women attended on average 8.0 appointments (Max.: 20, SD 3.385, Min: 0) (p=0.000, adjusted relative risk 0.77 95% CI 0.74-0.81). (2) The mean Hb value in the local control group was 11.1 g/dl, while in the asylum-seeking women's group it was 10.6 g/dl (p= 0.00, adjusted difference 0.54 95% CI -0.77 to -0.34). This study showed that the German health care system is capable of treating asylum-seeking women. Nevertheless, it is possible that our results do not necessarily reflect the ability of the health care system but stem from other selection parameters of the health condition of our subjects, such as the "healthy migrant effect."