Abstract
Although refugee adolescents and children are recognised as a health risk population, few studies have explored their Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL). The present study investigated 1) the sociodemographic predictors of HRQOL such as ethnicity, trauma exposure, and length of residency in Australia in a multiethnic paediatric population with refugee experiences and 2) the relationship between mental healthcare utilisation and HRQOL. Method: Participants were 458 adolescents and children, aged 4 - 17 years, living in South Australia. Parents provided data across the sample and adolescents also completed questionnaires. Overall HRQOL and its composite functional dimensions were assessed using the Paediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL) instrument. Questions from the Child and Adolescent Component of the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing were used to assess service utilisation. Results: Migration region/ethnicity predicted better HRQOL as well as physical, emotional and psychosocial functioning for both children and adolescents. African youths indicated higher HRQOL than those from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East/South Asia respectively. Pre-migration trauma exposure was associated with lower HRQOL; and longer stay in Australia was related to lower emotional functioning in children. There was a negative association between healthcare service utilisation and PedsQL scores, with participants accessing services demonstrating lower HRQOL. Conclusion: Using more rigorous methods, future research is needed to investigate additional sociodemographic predictors of HRQOL, and protective/risk factors that impact on HRQOL of young refugees.
Highlights
By mid-2014, war and political violence had resulted in 16.7 million people seeking refuge across international borders [1]
90.2% of adolescents and children lived with parents who were either unemployed or relied on government payments as their main source of income, 25.2% lived in households headed by a single parent/caregiver, and 59.8% had lived in Australia for less than five years prior to the survey
The present study explored the sociodemographic predictors of Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and the relationship between mental health care service utilisation and HRQOL
Summary
By mid-2014, war and political violence had resulted in 16.7 million people seeking refuge across international borders [1]. Notwithstanding a growing literature on the mental health of refugee children and youth, there has been a focus on a few extreme responses to war-related trauma such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression [3] [4]. The majority of refugee youths do not develop psychiatric problems despite their traumatic experiences [5] and those who received such diagnoses tend to indicate improvement over time [6]. Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL), including the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of health and wellbeing as well as school functioning, is an important measure of the health impacts of the refugee experience. Refugee children and adolescents could be a population with elevated risk for health problems due to adverse pre-migratory and post-migratory experiences, few studies have explored their HRQOL including risk and protective factors of HRQOL
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