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Ann Duerr, MD, PhD, Samuel F. Posner, PhD and Mark Gilbert, MD

Ann Duerr was with the Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Samuel F. Posner is with the Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Mark Gilbert is with Food for the Hungry, International, Goma, Zaire.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Ann Duerr, HIV Vaccine Trials Network, Core Operations Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, J3-100, Seattle, WA 98109 (e-mail: aduerr{at}hvtn.org).

Objectives. The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) policy encourages foster care during refugee emergencies. We examined evidence to support this policy using data from the 1994 Rwandan refugee crisis.

Methods. The association of weight gain and acute illness with family status (foster children vs children living with their biological families) was examined using latent growth curve and repeated measures logistic regression analysis.

Results. Weight gain for all children averaged 0.40 kg/month and was associated with child’s age but not with family status, child’s or caregiver’s sex, caregiver’s marital status, possession of blankets or plastic sheeting, severe malnutrition, month of enrollment, or acute illness. Illness was not more common among foster children than among children living with their biological families.

Conclusions. This analysis supports the UNHCR/UNICEF recommendation of fostering for unaccompanied children during an acute refugee crisis.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Porter Global Evidence for a Biopsychosocial Understanding of Refugee Adaptation Transcultural Psychiatry, September 1, 2007; 44(3): 418 - 439. [Abstract] [PDF]

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