Preterm delivery and low birthweight among refugees in Greece

Recently Greece received a large number of refugees mainly from Eastern European countries, Middle East, Africa and the Pontus region. Refugee status, implying psychosocial adversities and financial problems, has traditionally been associated with unfavourable pregnancy outcome. This study aimed to compare the incidence of preterm delivery and low birthweight among 638 refugees and 1231 indigenous women giving birth at the same hospital in Athens. Conditional logistic regression was used in the analysis to account for parity and delivery date (matching variables) as well as controlling explicitly for maternal age and gender of the neonate. It was demonstrated that refugee status did not overall influence the occurrence of preterm delivery or low birthweight, thus implying that these two variables are not sensitive or early indicators of the adverse effects of psychosocial stress suffered by refugees.