Public Health
Volume 121, Issue 1 , Pages 34-44 , January 2007

Health status of returnees to Kosovo: Do living conditions during asylum make a difference?

  • Letizia Toscani

      Affiliations

    • Department of Community Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Service de santé du personnel de l’Etat, 6 rue de l’Aubepine, 1205 Genève 4, Switzerland. Tel.: +41763172425; fax +41227813647.
  • ,
  • Lisa A. DeRoo

      Affiliations

    • Department of Community Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
  • ,
  • Ariel Eytan

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
  • ,
  • Marianne Gex-Fabry

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
  • ,
  • Vlatko Avramovski

      Affiliations

    • International Organization for Migration, Pristina, Kosovo
  • ,
  • Louis Loutan

      Affiliations

    • Department of Community Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
  • ,
  • Patrick Bovier

      Affiliations

    • Department of Community Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland

Received 31 August 2005 ,Revised 5 May 2006 ,Accepted 28 June 2006.

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PII: S0033-3506(06)00226-5

doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2006.06.017

Public Health
Volume 121, Issue 1 , Pages 34-44 , January 2007