Two Years of Primary Care Pop-up Screenings for Milwaukee’s Rohingya Populace

Background/Significance:

The Rohingya are a refugee population from Myanmar with over 1000 families settled in Milwaukee over the past decade. Various barriers impede their access to medical care, including language barriers, a low literacy rate, and difficulties navigating the healthcare system. The Burmese Rohingya Community of Wisconsin (BRCW) services Milwaukee's Rohingya through programs that help their integration into American society including healthcare. This study explores a partnership with BRCW to deliver health screenings to Milwaukee’s Rohingya.

Purpose:

The purpose of this project was to host health screenings at a booth within BRCW's facility. The importance of these screenings is to demonstrate the potential for serving refugee communities’ healthcare needs through community partnerships.

Methods:

Eight screenings took place throughout 2023-2024. Measurements were taken for participants’ blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, height and BMI, with quick health education being given with an in-person interpreter. Additionally, educational videos in Rohingya on various health topics were available on an iPad on our work stand. At two of our screenings, an additional question was included on if the participant had seen a primary care physician in the past year.

Results:

Over 170 community members took part in our screenings. Screenings took place coordinating with community events at BRCW including health fairs, a mosque service, community celebrations, and English/citizenship classes. Of the participants, 39 were counseled for having an obese BMI, 27 were counseled for either having or being at a high risk for hypertension, and 7 were counseled for either having or being at a high risk for diabetes. Of the two sessions where it was asked if the participants had seen a primary care provider in the last year, 40 responses showed 95% reporting that they have.

Conclusion:

Our experience shows the potential for community partnerships in providing health screenings with education for refugee populations with over 57 of the participants receiving counseling for at least one chronic condition. Though interpretation is limited by the data only including two screenings, a higher-than-expected percentage answered affirmatively that they have a primary care physician. Future studies could likely focus more on the quality and reception of our Rohingya-language videos on various health topics, and how to best present them to the community for use.