The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic altered everyones lifestyle causing major restrictions in public health practices and social life all over the world. Therefore, refugees who were already living a disrupted life were more affected by this situation. This study was aimed to determine the difficulties, knowledge levels and stress levels of Syrian refugees in Türkiye during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study included 633 Syrian refugees who applied to Migrant Health Centers (MHC) in Gaziantep province between March 2022 and May 2022. Participants filled out a questionnaire consisting of 61 question including sociodemographic data and knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the participants' Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was evaluated. Three hundred and five of the participants were women and 328 were men, and the average age was 38.46±11.72 years. It was observed that 24.5% of the participants were unemployed, 46.6% were economically supported, and all of them had low income levels. It was determined that the majority of the participants did not have sufficient information about the COVID-19 pandemic and almost half of them had difficulties obtaining clean water, cleaning materials, masks, medicine and healthcare services. It was determined that those who could speak Turkish faced more challenges getting masks and medicines than those who did not speak Turkish. Participants' PSS scores were at the upper limit of moderate stress. It was also revealed that PSS scores decreased as the duration of residence in Türkiye increased. Our findings reveal that Syrian refugees experienced difficulties in many areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also determined that perceived stress among Syrian refugees was quite high.
Key words: Coronavirus disease refugees, Perceived Stress Scale.
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