Health service accessibility and psychological distress among displaced populations during the armed conflict: A...

Aim: To quantify barriers to access to essential health services and describe patterns of psychological distress and help-seeking among displaced populations during the armed conflict in Ukraine.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire captured displacement status, linkage to primary care (declaration), perceived accessibility, barriers in the previous 6 months, awareness of reimbursement medicines, unmet service needs, and psychological symptoms within the last 2 weeks. The dataset (n=450) comprises anonymized real-world responses collected in this study.

Results: The 48,4% of respondents were classified as currently displaced, and 75,8% reported a primary care declaration. Primary care was rated fully accessible by 20,9%, whereas 42,7% reported difficult/very difficult access. Appointment unavailability (61,6%), lack of medicines (49,8%), and high service costs (40,0%) were common barriers. Sleep disturbance (37,6%) and anxiety/panic (36,2%) were frequent; 18,7% reported seeking any support for mental health needs.

Conclusions: In this cross-sectional survey, access constraints clustered around appointment availability, medicine supply, and affordability, while psychological symptoms were frequent and support-seeking remained limited. Interventions should combine primary care navigation and capacity measures with integrated, stigma-sensitive mental health pathways.