Disability, violence, and mental health among Somali refugee women in a humanitarian setting

Hossain, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1878-8145, Pearson, R, McAlpine, A, Bacchus, L, Muuo, SW, Muthuri, SK, Spangaro, J, Kuper, H, Franchi, G, Pla Cordero, R, Cornish-Spencer, S, Hess, T, Bangha, M and Izugbara, C, 2020. Disability, violence, and mental health among Somali refugee women in a humanitarian setting. Global Mental Health, 7: e30. ISSN 2054-4251

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Abstract

Background: There is limited evidence on the relationship between disability, experiences of gender-based violence (GBV), and mental health among refugee women in humanitarian contexts.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of baseline data (n = 209) collected from women enrolled in a cohort study of refugee women accessing GBV response services in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. Women were surveyed about GBV experiences (past 12 months, before the last 12 months, before arriving in the refugee camps), functional disability status, and mental health (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress), and we explored the inter-relationship of these factors.

Results: Among women accessing GBV response services, 44% reported a disability. A higher proportion of women with a disability (69%) reported a past-year experience of physical intimate partner violence and/or physical or sexual non-partner violence, compared to women without a disability (54%). A higher proportion of women with a disability (32%) experienced non-partner physical or sexual violence before arriving in the camp compared to women without a disability (16%). Disability was associated with higher scores for depression (1.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54–3.33), PTSD (2.26, 95% CI 0.03–4.49), and anxiety (1.54, 95% CI 0.13–2.95) after adjusting for age, length of encampment, partner status, number of children, and GBV indicators.

Conclusions: A large proportion of refugee women seeking GBV response services have disabilities, and refugee women with a disability are at high risk of poor mental health. This research highlights the need for mental health and disability screening within GBV response programming.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Global Mental Health
Creators:	Hossain, M., Pearson, R., McAlpine, A., Bacchus, L., Muuo, S.W., Muthuri, S.K., Spangaro, J., Kuper, H., Franchi, G., Pla Cordero, R., Cornish-Spencer, S., Hess, T., Bangha, M. and Izugbara, C.
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date:	2020
Volume:	7
ISSN:	2054-4251
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1017/gmh.2020.23 DOI 1622403 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	28 Nov 2022 09:48
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2022 09:48
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/47518

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