1. Clinical and laboratory evaluation of new immigrant and refugee children arriving in Greece
- Author
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Evangelia Samoli, Olga D. Boleti, Pavlos Nisianakis, Stavroula K. Dikalioti, Ioanna D. Pavlopoulou, Marsela Tanaka, and Konstantinos Tsoumakas
- Subjects
Male ,Pediatrics ,Health Status ,Logistic regression ,0302 clinical medicine ,Outpatient clinic ,Health Status Indicators ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Prospective Studies ,Child ,education.field_of_study ,Refugees ,Latent tuberculosis ,Greece ,Confounding ,Vaccination ,lcsh:RJ1-570 ,Child Health ,3. Good health ,Europe ,Child, Preschool ,Female ,Research Article ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Hepatitis B virus ,Tuberculosis ,Asia ,Adolescent ,Anemia ,Population ,Adolescent Health ,Emigrants and Immigrants ,03 medical and health sciences ,030225 pediatrics ,Migrant children ,medicine ,Humans ,Infant Health ,education ,Blood lead levels ,business.industry ,Clinical Laboratory Techniques ,Infant ,lcsh:Pediatrics ,medicine.disease ,Health indicator ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Logistic Models ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Africa ,business ,Demography - Abstract
Background Migrant children are a population at risk for various health problems. Despite the increased inflow of migrants in Greece, data regarding their health assessment are lacking. This study aims to describe the clinical and certain laboratory characteristics and identify possible associations in a group of new immigrant (I) and refugee (R) children, arriving in Athens, Greece. Methods A prospective, cross- sectional study was performed in a migrant outpatient clinic of a tertiary Children’s hospital. All immigrant and refugee children, examined to obtain a health certificate, within 3 months of their arrival in the country, were enrolled. Clinical and laboratory information was collected in a pre- designed form. We applied multiple logistic regression models to investigate the association between the child’s status (immigrant vs refugee) and health indicators controlling for possible confounding effects, mainly of age and area of origin. Results From 2010 to 2013, a total of 300 children (I/R:138/162) with a mean age of 7.08 (range 1–14) years were included. Overall, 79.3% presented unknown vaccination status, 21.3% dental and 7.3% additional clinical problems. Latent tuberculosis was identified in 2.7%, while anemia, low serum ferritin and eosinophilia were found in 13.7%, 17.3%, and 22.7% of subjects, respectively. 57.7% had protective antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs ≥ 10 IU/L) and 30.6% elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs). Immigrants had less likely unknown immunization (OR = 0.25, p
- Published
- 2016