Psychological Distress among Syrian Refugee Women and a Control Group in an Urban Settlement in Beirut- a Pilot Study

Abstract

The Syrian conflict has created approximately five million refugees. Of these, more than one million have settled in Lebanon. This project aimed to determine the prevalence of psychological distress (PD) amongst Syrian refugee mothers compared to a control group of local mothers living in the same informal urban settlement in Beirut. A convenient sample was selected from a primary care center. The General Health Questionnaire-12 items (GHQ-12) was administered to determine PD amongst women who were pregnant within 2 years of the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Sixty women were enrolled; 35 were Syrian refugees. All women had PD. The mean GHQ-12 scores were 7.5 and 7.2 for the control and Syrian refugee mothers, respectively. When asked about stressors, 91.7% of the women stated poverty. Syrian refugee women had similar PD as women who were not displaced and did not experience direct war related hostilities. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.