PATIENTS AND METHODS
The specifically created questionnaires consisted of 20 questions, of which 16 closed and 4 open as illustrated in Table 1. The topics addressed concerned: a) the way in which the patients and their parent/s had reached Italy; b) the help received (logistical and economic); c) the emotions experienced regarding the status of being a refugee; d) previous knowledge, opinions and expectations regarding Italy and Italians. Finally, e) a judgment on the quality of care received and f) any possible advice to improve the care required were asked. The questionnaires were translated into Ukrainian and thereafter translated back into Italian by a professional mother tongue mediator.
The compilers signed a consent form, containing the information on the purposes of the study and the processing that the data collected would undergo. As the questionnaires were anonymous, we did not require approval from the Ethical Board but only assent for the whole project.
The questionnaires were proposed to all the families that arrived to our Units after the first two months of care, by volunteers and a one-week window was granted to return the questionnaires.
Mothers were allowed to fill out the forms together with their children should they so desire,, however we did not obtain data on this choice.
The questionnaire was prepared with a descriptive intent and not as a tool for drawing comparisons by means of statistical analyses therefore only descriptive statistics were used in results.