Abstract
Objective
To compare the results of perinatal outcomes between Syrian refugees and Turkish women between 2016 and 2020.
Methods
The birth results of 17,997 participants (Syrian refugees: 3579 and Turkish women: 14,418) who delivered in the Labor Department of our hospital between January 2016 and December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed.
Results
Maternal age was younger (24.73 ± 6.08 vs. 27.4 ± 5.91 years, p < 0.001) and adolescent pregnancy rate was higher (19.4% vs. 5.6%, p < 0.001) in Syrian refuges than in Turkish women. Bishop scores on admission (4.6 ± 1.6 vs. 4.4 ± 1.1, p < 0.001), birth weight (3088.19 ± 575.32 g vs. 3109.76 ± 540.89 g, p = 0.044), low birth weight (11.3% vs. 9.7%, p = 0.004), and the rate of primary cesarean deliveries (10.1% vs. 15.8%, p < 0.001) were also statistically different. Additionally, the rates of anemia (65.9% vs. 29.2%, p < 0.001), preeclampsia (1.4% vs. 2.7%, p < 0.001), stillbirth (1.3% vs. 0.6%, p < 0.001), preterm premature rupture of membranes (2.7% vs. 1.9%, p = 0.002), and obstetric complications were different between the groups.
Conclusions
This study showed that inadequate antenatal care, communication and language barrier problems in Syrian refugees caused some adverse perinatal outcomes. All birth data of Syrian refugees must be disclosed by the Ministry of Health to confirm the accuracy of our data.
Significance
What is already known on this subject? Syrian refugees did not receive adequate antenatal care, and some adverse perinatal outcomes were observed more frequently due to communication and language barrier problems.
What does this study add? This study showed that more planned-programmed antenatal care-follow-up services should be provided, communication and language problems should be minimized, refugees should benefit more from health services, and effective-appropriate contraception methods should be provided to reduce negative perinatal outcomes.
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Protocol/Project development, Data collection or management and Manuscript writing/editing: Hasan Ali Inal and Zeynep Ozturk Inal.
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Necmettin Erbakan University Medical Faculty approved the study (2021–3492). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Inal, H.A., Inal, Z.O. Comparison of Perinatal Outcomes Between Syrian Refugees and Turkish Women in the Middle Anatolia Region of Turkey. Matern Child Health J 27, 2139–2146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03748-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03748-8