The Impact of Earthquake-Induced Migration on Access to Primary Health Care Services: A Case Study of Istanbul Following the Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes on February 6, 2023

Pemra C. Unalan, Ayşe Kulaç, Neslişah Temuroglu, Ege Nil Cagansoy, Nisan Koca, Sevgi Çitil

Keywords: Earthquake, Migration, Primary Health Care Services, Family medicine, Preventive medicine

Background:

One of the effects of eartquake disaster is that people leave their place of residence for safety, i.e. forced migration. However it is suggested that the primary health care system has the potential to reduce the health impact of disasters by acting effectively at each stage of the disaster management cycle.

Research questions:

What is the primary care utilisation behaviour of the people who migrated to Istanbul after the major earthquakes and aftershocks in the centre of Kahramanmaraş on 6 February,2023?

Method:

The study gathered data via a survey about the demographics, and the behaviors of the earthquake victims to utilize primary care services in their home towns and mini-depression screening test. The participants are recruited from the lists provided by one of the main reference hospitals for the earthquake victims on Asian side of Istanbul from 06.02-30.03.2023 under ethical approval. The study involved the list of 256 individuals. After an individual could be contacted snowball method is used to contact the other earthquake victims who moved on Istanbul. A total of 48 individuals with 4 participants recruited via the snowball method recruited . The data were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 program, with Chi-square, Student's T Test and McNemar tests.

Results:

64.6%(n=31)of the participants were women, the average age was 44.4, after migrating to Istanbul 43.8%(n=21) rented home, 39.6%(n=19) lived with a relative, 6.3%(n=3) live in dormitories/mansions. Although 89.6%(n=43)had a family doctor in the home town before the earthquake and 54.2%(n=26) visit their family physicians in every 1-2months, 62.5%(n=30) have a chronic disease, 54.2%(n=26) use medication regularly, 18.8%(n=9) had a psychiatric illness requiring treatment before/after the earthquake, 68.8%(n=33) experienced an acute health problem in the last month and 85.4% was positive with the "2-Question Depression Screening Test".

Conclusions:

The accessibility of the primary healthcare services is very weak after the "6th Feburary earthquake".

Points for discussion:

Are you ready for delivering primary health care services in your country in case of disaster?

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