The social ecology of health promotion within war-effected refugee preschool children

Abstract

Health promotion frameworks that identify the risk and protective factors in promoting the health of war-affected preschool children living in refugee camps are limited. This study aimed to identify ecological factors in refugee camps affecting the health promotion of children in a vulnerable population using the storytelling method. Twenty Syrian refugee children aged be-tween five and six years were interviewed individually. Data were analyzed in NVivo V.11 software using thematic content analysis. Four major themes derived from the data included the following; risk factors that cause illness, awareness of the illness, strategies for coping with illness, and protecting and promoting health. These results suggest that health promotion programs targeting refugee children should be considered as a bio-socio-ecological approach.