Roma Health: An Overview of Communicable Diseases in Eastern and Central Europe

Kabir Tombat and Jitse P. van Dijk
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Kabir Tombat: Department of Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Ant. Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
Jitse P. van Dijk: Department of Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Ant. Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-12

Abstract: The Roma are Europe’s largest minority. They are also one of its most disadvantaged, with low levels of education and health and high levels of poverty. Research on Roma health often reveals higher burdens of disease in the communities studied. This paper aims to review the literature on communicable diseases among Roma across Eastern and Central Europe. A PubMed search was carried out for communicable diseases among Roma in these parts of Europe, specifically in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and North Macedonia. The papers were then screened for relevance and utility. Nineteen papers were selected for review; most of them from Slovakia. Roma continue to have a higher prevalence of communicable diseases and are at higher risk of infection than the majority populations of the countries they live in. Roma children in particular have a particularly high prevalence of parasitic disease. However, these differences in disease prevalence are not present across all diseases and all populations. For example, when Roma are compared to non-Roma living in close proximity to them, these differences are often no longer significant.

Keywords: Roma; communicable diseases; Central and Eastern Europe; review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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