Survivors of the war in the Northern Kosovo : violence exposure, risk factors and public health effects of an ethnic conflict
The aim of this population-based study was to assess the long-lasting effects of ethnic conflict on health and well-being (with a focus on injury and persistent pain) at family and community level. We have also investigated possible risk factors for victimisation during the conflict and factors contributing to healing.
Source: Conflict and health, 2010 ; 4: 11
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Methods: We conducted a district-level cross-sectional cluster
survey of 1,115 households with a population of 6,845. Interviews
were carried out in Mitrovice district in Northern Kosovo from
September to October 2008, using standardised questionnaire to
collect lifetime violence exposure, lifestyle factors and health
information on individual and household.
Results: Ethnic Albanians made up 95% of the sample population.
Crude mortality and under-five mortality rate was not high in 2008.
Over 90% of families had been exposed to at least two categories of
violence and human rights violations, and 493 individuals from 341
families reported torture experiences. During the two weeks before
the survey, 20% of individuals had suffered physical or mental
pain. There were differences in pain complaints according to gender
and age, and whether people had been injured within 12 months, had
lifetime exposure to violence-related injury, or had been tortured.
Patterns of social and political participation in a family could
affect the proportion of family members complaining of pain. The
proportion of family members with pain complaints was related to a
decline in the household income (coef=9.31, 95% CI=6.16-12.46,
P<0.001) and the fact of borrowing money (coef=6.11, 95%
CI=2.91-9.30, P<0.001) because of an injured person in the
household. Families that were affiliated with the Kosovo Liberation
Army, or had participated in a protest before or during the war,
were likely to be targeted by Serbian paramilitary and law
enforcement agencies.
Conclusions: Mitrovice district is currently characterised by a
low level of violence, but the effects of ethnic conflict on health
and well-being have not gone. The level of lifetime exposure to
violence, the proportion of family members reporting pain and
lifetime violence-related injury, and family's financial burden
were found to be inter-correlated. The sample confined to one
ethnic group in one district limits the generalizability of the
findings.