Access to Care and Prevalence of Hypertension and Diabetes Among Syrian Refugees in Northern Jordan

This publication investigates the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes among long-displaced Syrian refugees in northern Jordan and their level of access to care.

In this cross-sectional study of 1022 randomly sampled households of Syrian refugees, the biologically based prevalence of hypertension and diabetes was moderately higher than self-reported prevalence. Among the participants, 57.4% had 1 or more complication, 82.8% were obese or overweight, 49.1% sought care in the past month, and 26.8% missed their medications in the past week.

These findings suggest that long-term disease management is inadequate, in that Syrian refugees were generally aware of their diagnoses and had access to medication, but complications and factors associated with severe disease were highly prevalent.