A Systematic Review of Refugee Women’s Reproductive Health

Abstract

Resettling refugee women may be at greater risk than other women for several harmful reproductive health out-comes as a result of their migration experience. The objec-tive of this study was to determine differences in reproductive health status between refugee women in countries of resettlement and non-refugee counterparts. A systematic review of the literature culled from five elec-tronic databases and web searching of international agen-cies and academic centres focusing on refugees was conducted. Of the forty-one high quality studies identi-fied, fourteen looked at refugees exclusively; only nine of the fourteen focused on the reproductive health of refu-gees; six of the nine directly compared refugee to non-refu-gee women’s health. There is a paucity of population-based data to support or refute claims of greater reproductive health risks for resettling refugee women.