Citation

Zhang W, Duan G, Xu Q, Jia Z, Bai Z, Liu W, Pan X, Tian W. Asia Pac. J. Public Health 2015; 27(8): 860-870.

Affiliation

Department of Heath Services Management, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China wh_tian@aliyun.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1010539515602089

PMID

26316500

Abstract

After the Wenchuan earthquake, a large number of studies have focused on postearthquake psychological disorders among survivors; however, most of these studies were conducted within a relatively short period. This study was conducted to examine the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and general psychiatric morbidity among adult survivors 3 years after the Wenchuan earthquake, China. Through a multistage systematic sampling approach, a cross-sectional survey of 360 participants, 18 years or older, was conducted. The prevalence of PTSD and general psychiatric morbidity was 10.3% and 20.6%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed significant predictors for PTSD, including female gender and having felt guilt concerning someone's death or injury. Significant predictors for general psychiatric morbidity included unmarried status and having been in serious danger. These results suggest that mental health services should be continuously available to earthquake survivors.

Language: en