Migrant children within Europe: a systematic review of children’s perspectives on their health experiences

Objectives: To review the extant literature in order to explore what is known about children’s own perspectives on the ir health experiences , focusing upon children and young people who have migrated into, and within, Europe. Study Design: A systematic review with narrative synthesis. Methods: A review of English language articles was performed in June 2016 using the following databases: Medline, CINAHL, Coc hrane and Web of Science. Included papers had to report data generated directly with children, up to 18 years of age, who had migrated across national borders into, or within, Europe during their own lifetimes. Extraction from articles was undertaken by a ll authors and quality assessment of included reviews was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool ( MMAT ) . Results: The articles in the final dataset included research based on 4 broad areas: alcohol, smoking and substance use; diet, eating disorde rs and overweight; emotional, psychological and mental health issues and; children’s views and experiences of health and health services. The majority of studies were cross - sectional analytic or incidence or prevalence studies. Conclusion: There is a gene ral lack of clarity in the literature regarding the reporting of children’s own migration status. Children’s voices are often subsumed within those of their adult parents or carers. There is a need to promote more child - focussed research which gives voice to migrant children to better understand the complex and multidimensional factors that contribute to their (ill) health.