Immediate physical needs of refugees during the Ukrainian armed conflict of 2022

The study assessed the physical needs of Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons during the ongoing Ukrainian armed conflict of 2022. We aimed to investigate the immediate physical needs of the refugees that may affect their somatic condition during the armed conflict when they did not yet reach their final destination or just reached a safety zone.

The questionnaire-based prospective repeated cross-sectional study (three study groups) and the longitudinal study (one group) were undertaken in Ukraine and Israel among 19,101 refugees and 828 controls from February 24 to April 9. We assessed the availability of basic somatic necessities (water, food, clothing, hygiene, and sleep) and the general physical fatigue of internal, moving abroad, and arriving to safety refugees with scores ranging from 35 (normal) to 7 (extremely inadequate).

The average score of 26.8 ± 1.8 indicates that the participants experienced somatic problems even being healthy. In Ukraine, the score for moving abroad refugees (n = 16,449) dropped from 26.8 ± 0.6 to 23.5 ± 0.6 (p = 0.03) during the study period. Internally displaced persons (n = 1200) remained physically stable with a score of 27.5 ± 0.7. In Israel, group-organized refugees (n = 796) were relatively normal somatically (30.0 ± 0.6) while independent refugees (n = 656) were exhausted having a score of 24.2 ± 0.7 (p = 0.03 vs. group-organized).

During hostilities, refugees, internally displaced persons, and regular inhabitants are somatically affected but to varying degrees. For refugees, group-organized travel abroad is the best option to maintain adequate physical condition, followed by an internal refugee status, and travel abroad independently (the worst strategy).