The accessibility and use of health services in Greece by Albanian Immigrants

Introduction: The equal access of migrants to health services is considered to be a key-point to their integration in Greek society, ensuring of public health and respect of the human right for equal health care. The limited knowledge about available health services makes their use by the migrants even more difficult. Aim: The assessment of the access and use of health services in Greece by Albanian migrants and the investigation of the impact of certain demographic data. Methodology: The current study is a cross-sectional study, conducted from 1st January to 30th April 2012. Study population consisted of 189 Albanian migrants (men and women), residents of Athens or Thessaloniki for ≤ 10 years. The sample was selected by snowball sampling type. Data were collected through a questionnaire, which was created by the researchers, based on the international literature. Statistical analysis included chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact-test, Student’s t-test and analysis of variance test. Results: The 38.6 % of the total number of migrants reported that they are well or very well informed about health services in Greece, while 57,1% reported moderate or poor knowledge about health services. The 60,8% of the participants, used health services in Greece in their last 12-month-staying in country. Specifically, 33.8% of them visited emergency departments, 24.3% visited private practitioners and 13.2% visited private dentists. In addition, the 33.3% said that during the last 12 months, happened to need health services treatment, but finally they were not satisfied by those services. The 88.9% of them said that they do trust health professionals in Greece. The increased ability to understand (p<0,001) and speak the Greek language (p<0,001), and the big duration of staying in Greece (p<0,001) were associated with increased knowledge about health services. Also, the increased monthly family income was associated with reduced difficulty for accessing the health services (p<0,001). Conclusion: The poor competence of understanding and speaking the Greek language and the duration of staying in the country as well, constitute the major problems of Albanian migrants regarding their access to health services. It is important to undertake actions for the improvement of the quality of health services, the training of health professionals, the information of migrants and the facilitation of the communication so as to improve migrants’ access to health services in Greece.