Type of refugee accommodation and health of residents: cross-sectional cluster analysis

Few studies have assessed whether refugees’ health is associated with accommodation characteristics. We aimed to devise a typology of refugee accommodation based on number of inhabitants, degree of housing deterioration and remoteness (distance to amenities) and assess the association with health in multivariate analyses. Accommodations with a moderate occupation, lowest levels of deterioration, and a central urban location showed the best health outcomes in terms of subjective general health status, depression, and general anxiety disorder (GAD). Associations were strongest for GAD and weakest for depression. Our findings inform policymakers on layout and location of refugee collective accommodation centres. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The primary data collection was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) in the scope of the project RESPOND (Grant Number: 01GY1611). The study was realised with funding of the German Science Foundation (DFG) in the scope of the Research Unit PH-LENS (FOR 2928), subprojects DEPRIV (409654512) and NEXUS (GZ: BO 5233/1-1). AM acknowledges financial support by the Else Kroener-Fresenius-Stiftung (2017_Promotionskolleg.08) within the Heidelberg Graduate School of Global Health. The funders had no influence on study design, analysis, or decision to publish. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Primary data has been collected as part of the RESPOND project at Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany () and oral informed consent was obtained from all participants after oral, written and audio-based information in nine languages deployed by a multi-lingual field team. Ethical clearance was received by the ethics committee of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg on October 12, 2017 (S-516/2017[2]). I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes Data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.