Depression, violence and socioeconomic outcomes among refugees in East Africa: evidence from a multicountry representative survey

Background

Existing research on refugee mental health is heavily skewed towards refugees in high-income countries, even though most refugees (83%) are hosted in low-income and middle-income countries. This problem is further compounded by the unrepresentativeness of samples, small sample sizes and low response rates.

Objective

To present representative findings on the prevalence and correlates of depression among different refugee subgroups in East Africa.

Methods

We conducted a multicountry representative survey of refugee and host populations in urban and camp contexts in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia (n=15 915). We compared the prevalence of depression between refugee and host populations and relied on regression analysis to explore the association between violence, depression and socioeconomic outcomes.

Findings

We found a high prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms (31%, 95% CI 28% to 35%) and functional impairment (62%, 95% CI 58% to 66%) among the refugee population, which was significantly higher than that found in the host population (10% for depressive symptoms, 95% CI 8% to 13% and 25% for functional impairment, 95% CI 22% to 28%) (p<0·001). Further, we observed a dose–response relationship between exposure to violence and mental illness. Lastly, high depressive symptoms and functional impairment were associated with worse socioeconomic outcomes.

Conclusion

Our results highlight that refugees in East-Africa—particularly those exposed to violence and extended exile periods—are disproportionately affected by depression, which may also hinder their socioeconomic integration.

Clinical implications

Given the high prevalence of depression among refugees in East Africa, our results underline the need for scalable interventions that can promote refugees’ well-being.