Introduction: We performed examinations on refugees newly arrived in Denmark. The aims of the examinations were: 1) To examine the health status of children and adults with the purpose of facilitating early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. 2) To see if a screening examination shortly after arrival in Denmark is possible in primary practice. (3) To determine whether it is advisable to execute the tasks in cooperation between public health care of children and primary practice. Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective study of the findings of examinations of the 55 refugees and relatives of refugees who arrived in Kjellerup County, Denmark, between 1 January 2000 and 1 January 2002. Results: All the refugees participated in the voluntary examinations. The design created a good primary contact and for the refugees it was a good introduction to the Danish health care system, thereby possibly creating a better follow-up environment. 64% of the persons examined had one or more somatic diseases that required medical treatment or closer examination. This finding is in contrast to other investigations of asylum seekers, in which the reported incidence of somatic disease has not been above the average in the Danish population. All of the children and most of the adults suffered from crisis reactions and psychosomatic conditions, but these are not reported in this paper, since the important finding is the large number of somatic findings. Most of the children had not completed standard vaccination programmes, neither by local nor by Danish standards. Discussion: Integration of refugees has been the responsibility of the local counties for the last five years, but until now no guidelines concerning health examinations or vaccinations have been issued by the national authorities. This study supports the idea that early detection of disease, vaccination and medical treatment are important. The experiences of the cooperation between public health care of children and primary practice have been so positive that the method is recommended for the future.

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refugee public health service mass screening follow up human Refugees Denmark health status morbidity disease carrier Humans male female Article disease transmission Retrospective Studies adult child health care standard Emigration and Immigration psychosomatic disorder health care system vaccination primary health care early diagnosis Child