{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T07:03:58Z","timestamp":1784099038540,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784073600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000050","name":"National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["K23-HL148530"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K23-HL148530"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000050","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Refugees experience a disproportionately high burden of hypertension, with war-related displacement disrupting their social networks. Countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are among the largest producers of refugees globally. While previous research has established the role of social support in improving chronic disease management, little is known about its impact among refugees from Arabic-speaking MENA countries. This study focuses on refugees diagnosed with hypertension from two Arabic-speaking MENA countries, Syria and Iraq, to investigate perceived social connectedness and the influence of social support on hypertension management.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      107 refugees from Iraq (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 84) and Syria (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 23) who resettled in San Diego, CA, were recruited from a federally qualified health center in a refugee-majority neighborhood. Participants completed quantitative surveys; a subsample of 54 completed in-depth interviews until thematic saturation was reached.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Mean age was 61.61 years (SD = 9.81), mean years since United States resettlement was 9.6 years (SD = 5.82), and 48.6% (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 52) of participants were female. Overall, 60.7% (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 65) reported social disconnection, and 61.7% reported an annual income &amp;lt;$15,000. Participants described 3 forms of social support (or lack thereof) that impact hypertension management. (1) Informational: reliance on close social networks for health information; (2) Instrumental: lack of transportation and language barriers in clinical spaces; and (3) Emotional: loss of social networks and social status, causing psychosocial stress.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Findings suggest that prioritizing family reunification during resettlement and integrating social support into public health interventions, such as family-centered care, shared medical appointments, and community-based peer support, may mitigate the loss of social support and related hypertension disparities among refugees.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1849878","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T06:05:27Z","timestamp":1784095527000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["\u201cI left my country and the people I love. It gave me hypertension\u201d: a qualitative study of social support and hypertension management in refugees"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Ariana","family":"Khayamian","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Displacement and Health Research Center, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California","place":["San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carine","family":"Tamamian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Displacement and Health Research Center, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California","place":["San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States"]},{"name":"School of Medicine, University of California","place":["San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lana","family":"Bridi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine, University of California","place":["San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alissa B.","family":"Sideman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California","place":["San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States"]},{"name":"Global Brain Health Institute, University of California","place":["San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nour","family":"Makarem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center","place":["New York, NY, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dahlia A.","family":"Kaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles General Medical Center","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tala","family":"Al-Rousan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Displacement and Health Research Center, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California","place":["San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"Geneva\n          World Health Organization\n          Global report on hypertension 2025: high stakes \u2013 turning evidence into action.\n          \n          2025"},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"Hypertension Key Facts\n          \n          2025"},{"key":"B3","volume-title":"A Population-Based Policy and Systems Change Approach to Prevent and Control Hypertension","year":"2010"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"957","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(21)01330-1","article-title":"Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants","volume":"398","year":"2021","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B5","unstructured":"High Blood Pressure Facts\n          \n          2026"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e70216","DOI":"10.1111\/jch.70216","article-title":"Trends in hypertension prevalence and control in the United States Over 25 Years","volume":"28","author":"Saleh","year":"2026","journal-title":"J Clin Hypertens."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e020997","DOI":"10.1161\/JAHA.121.020997","article-title":"Inequities in Hypertension Control in the United States Exposed and Exacerbated by Covid-19 and the Role of Home Blood Pressure and Virtual Health Care During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic","volume":"10","author":"Bress","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Am Heart Assoc."},{"key":"B8","unstructured":"Department of Homeland Security. 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