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The Assessment of Quality of Life in Refugees

  • Conference paper
Quality of Life Assessment: International Perspectives

Summary

The millions of refugees in the world are a very vulnerable group. They are on the run from all kinds of violence. This obviously affects their physical and psychological health. Although these effects have been studied separately, the entire scope of problems is very rarely investigated. Even in Western countries, where quality of life (QOL) research is very common, the QOL of refugees has not been studied. However, mental health status has been a special subject of study in refugee camps. Those assessing QOL or its separate aspects encounter a number of problems like the use of adequate measures, translation equivalence, informed consent, and the fact that refugees, especially women, are reluctant to disclose their traumatic experiences. However, there are a number of ways to overcome these problems and they are outlined in the present chapter.

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Authors
  1. J. De Vries
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  2. G. L. Van Heck
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Mental Health, World Health Organization, CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland

    John Orley M.D.  & Willem Kuyken Ph. D.  & 

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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De Vries, J., Van Heck, G.L. (1994). The Assessment of Quality of Life in Refugees. In: Orley, J., Kuyken, W. (eds) Quality of Life Assessment: International Perspectives. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79123-9_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79123-9_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-79125-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79123-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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