Savaştan Etkilenen Çocukların Sağlık Sorunları: Sistematik Derleme

Abstract

War Affected Children’s Health Problems: A Systematic Review Introduction: War impairs the bio-psycho-social health of individuals by increasing mortality and morbidity. Children’s basic lifestyles suffer. This systematic review was carried out to determine the physical, psychological and psychosocial health problems of children affected by the war and to present the initiatives applied to reduce these problems. Materials and Methods: This systematic review was prepared in accordance with The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis standards. In the study, the keywords “war affected youth”, “war affected boy or girl” and “war affected children” were used in Pubmed and CINAHL databases as English. Results: This study, a total of 105 articles were accessed and eight studies involving 3861 children were analyzed. In the study, which was examined in terms of physical health problems, it was found that the education level of the father affected the age of menarche (p<0.05). In studies examined in terms of psychological health problems; 38.4% of children experienced at least one war incident and 21.4% of them were exposed to bombardment/gunfire; they were exposed to more trauma in their childhood (p<0.001) and they experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (p<0.05); Stressful Life Events (SLE) significantly affected PTSD symptoms (p<0.01); interventions reduced PTSD and distress symptoms (p<0.05); It was found that PTSD scores decreased with Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Child Friendly Areas application (p<0.001). In studies examined in terms of psychosocial health problems, the rate of involuntary injury was high in boys from veteran families (p<0.01) and suicidal thoughts were found; It was determined that the children with high IQ levels had a good environment and a high income for the family (p<0.05). Conclusion: It can be concluded that the interventions applied in the studies were effective on children. It can be suggested to apply psycho-social-educational interventions in addition to medical treatments in order to improve the physical, psychological and psychosocial health problems of children affected by war and to ensure that these children are regained to themselves, their families and the society. Keywords: Child, health problems, war, violence.