Rapid Review of Yazidi Refugee Health

A rapid review of physical and mental health outcomes among Yazidi refugees resettled in Canada after 2017. The Yazidi community has faced centuries of persecution, culminating in the August 2014 Daesh (ISIS) genocide in Sinjar, Iraq — in which roughly 6,800 people were captured. Canada resettled around 1,200 Yazidi refugees in 2017 and more in the years that followed, with communities in Calgary, Toronto, Winnipeg, and London.

Duration: August 2018 – July 2023

Research objectives

• Characterize physical and mental health diagnoses among resettled Yazidi refugees.
• Compare health outcomes within Yazidi subgroups and against non-Yazidi refugees.
• Inform clinical and policy responses to the Daesh genocide and its long-term sequelae.

Study team

Principal Investigator: Dr. Gabriel Fabreau

Co-Investigators

Publications

• Hassan N et al. — "Sociodemographic Characteristics and Mental and Physical Health Diagnoses of Yazidi Refugees Who Survived the Daesh Genocide and Resettled in Canada."
  JAMA Network Open · July 12, 2023
  View original ↗
• Suppiah R et al. — "Stunting and Overweight Prevalence Among Resettled Yazidi, Syrian, and Iraqi Pediatric Refugees."
  JAMA Pediatrics · December 5, 2022
  View original ↗

Posters

• "Characterization of Family Separations and Family-Level Health among Resettled Yazidi Refugees to Canada." Hassan N et al.
  North American Refugee Health Conference (Virtual) · September 2020

Oral presentations

• Al Masri I et al. — "Characterization of Mental and Physical Health Conditions among Resettled Yazidi Refugees to Canada: The 'ISIS Effect'."
  North American Refugee Health Conference, Portland OR · June 2018

Invited lectures

• San Juan C et al. — "Resettled Yazidi Refugees: the Calgary experience — Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic."
  IRCC Survivors of Daesh Symposium, London ON · March 25, 2018

Media coverage

• The Conversation — "Healing through witnessing: Documenting the stories of Yazidi refugees in Canada" (Gabriel Fabreau & Annalee Coakley)
  July 19, 2023
• Calgary Journal — "Calgary research program helps refugees after fleeing genocide" (Jasleen Bhangu)
  February 18, 2022
• The Washington Post — "Far from the crumbling caliphate but haunted by ISIS" (Emily Rauhala & Amanda Coletta)
  April 10, 2019
• CBC News — "For a Yazidi refugee in Canada, the trauma of ISIS triggers rare, terrifying seizures" (Cameron McLean)
  December 8, 2018
• PRI's The World — "Yazidi refugees deal with PTSD — Interview with Dr. Annalee Coakley" (Marco Werman)
  December 5, 2018
  View original ↗
• CBC Radio: As It Happens — "Yazidi refugees in Canada suffering PTSD-related seizures need their family doctor" (Imogen Birchard)
  December 4, 2018
• The Globe and Mail — "Ottawa urged to reunite Yazidi refugees with their families to help treat rare disorder" (Michelle Zilio)
  December 2, 2018
• The New York Times — "Canada Struggles as It Opens Its Arms to Victims of ISIS" (Catherine Porter)
  March 16, 2018

Funding

Partners

Calgary Refugee Health Clinic (formerly Mosaic)

Mosaic Primary Care Network

London InterCommunity Health Centre