The proposed project investigates the health needs and barriers to healthcare access for Ukrainian Refugee Women (URW) in Norway, Sweden, and Estonia.

Recognizing that migrants often underutilize healthcare services and face unique challenges, the project aims to create a comprehensive understanding of their health-seeking behaviors and perceptions of the healthcare system.

By focusing on URW, the project will design and develop a User-Centered Design (UCD) of Digital Health Interventions (DHI) to improve information dissemination, healthcare access, and support systems.

Utilizing participatory design techniques and involving multidisciplinary teams, the project seeks to enhance integration into Nordic-Baltic healthcare systems and aligns with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Project number: 196420

Funder: Nordic-Baltic initiative for migration and integration research, NordForsk

Research area: Nordic initiative on Migration and Integration Research

International research cooperation with Ukraine and for Ukraine, 18 March 2026, Tartu, Lydia Hotel Event center

Presentation on PATHS project by Anneli Uusküla, Professor, Institute of Family Medicine, University of Tartu.

Conference of the Norwegian Research School in Global Health for Sustainable Futures, Bergen 3-4  November, 2025. 

Nord Baltic Migration and Integration Research, Kick off seminar, 17th June Malmö 2025.

Promoting Access Through Health System Navigation for Ukrainian Refugee Women

During the first year (2025), the PATHS project made progress toward improving Ukrainian refugee women’s access to healthcare in the Nordic–Baltic region.
Project research started from August 2025.

Shared Study Protocol and Cross‑Country Collaboration

Led by NTNU (Norway), the project developed a joint study protocol across Norway, Estonia, and Sweden through collaboration between design researchers, epidemiologists, migration specialists, and public‑health teams.
Recruitment criteria, topic guides, data‑collection routines, and ethics procedures were harmonised across all sites. NTNU also provided access  to secure digital tools (Nettskjema and Educloud) for GDPR‑compliant handling of consent forms, audio recordings, and transcripts for all consortium partners.
This shared framework ensures comparable data across countries and establishes a strong foundation for joint analysis and the development of future digital‑health interventions.

Phase 1 Data Collection and Analysis, December 2025 to June 2026

Across all three countries, the PATHS project has assembled a rich comparative dataset on how Ukrainian refugee women understand, navigate, and experience Nordic–Baltic healthcare systems, as well as how their prior experiences in Ukraine shape expectations, decision‑making, and help‑seeking behaviour.
This dataset also includes healthcare‑worker perspectives on needs, barriers, and support practices.

Phase 1 focuses on generating comparative insights into health‑seeking behaviour, frontline professional experiences, and user‑centred requirements for a future digital health navigation tool. Data collection and analysis are ongoing, and the first scientific publications are in preparation.
In Norway, Phase 1 is completed, with five focus groups conducted with Ukrainian refugee women and one with healthcare workers, all fully transcribed, translated, and verified and data analysis ongoing.
In Estonia, Phase 1 is progressing well, with three focus groups with Ukrainian women and one with healthcare professionals completed, and transcription and analysis underway.
In Sweden, Phase 1 is ongoing, with ethics approval in process and focus‑group data collection already initiated.