@article{ref1,
title="Prevalence of PTSD and depression among junior middle school students in a rural town far from the epicenter of the Wenchuan earthquake in China",
journal="PLoS one",
year="2012",
author="Wang, Weixu and Fu, Wei and Wu, Jin and Ma, Xian-Cang and Sun, Xue-Li and Huang, Yi and Hashimoto, Kenji and Gao, Cheng-Ge",
volume="7",
number="7",
pages="e41665-e41665",
abstract="CONTEXT: On May12(th) 2008, a devastating earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, struck Wenchuan county and surrounding areas in China. The prevalence of mental illness among children and adolescents in a rural town far from the earthquake epicenter is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among junior middle school students in a rural town Ningqiang county, 327 km from the earthquake epicenter. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A population-based mental health survey was conducted in March, 2009. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Survey Self-designed General Condition Survey Scale, Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), and the Depression Self-rating Scale for Children (DSRSC) were used to sample 1,841 junior middle school students in Ningqiang county, ten months after the Wenchuan earthquake. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of a high-risk for PTSD was 28.4%, with 32.7% among females, 23.8% among males (female vs. male, p<0.001), 38.6% in the severe exposure group and 24.3% in the mild exposure group (severe vs. mild exposure, p<0.001). For depressive symptoms, the overall prevalence was 19.5%, with 24.0% among females, 14.7% among males, 24.5% in the severe exposure group and 17.5% in the mild exposure group (female vs. male, p<0.001; severe vs. mild exposure, p<0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, factors such as &quot;having felt despair&quot;, or &quot;danger&quot; and &quot;having own house destroyed or damaged&quot; were significantly associated with PTSD symptoms. Female gender and delayed evacuation in females, and earthquake related experiences in males were significantly associated with depression. CONCLUSION: Traumatic events experienced during the earthquake were significantly associated with symptoms of PTSD and depression in children and adolescents, ten months after the Wenchuan earthquake. These data highlight a need for mental health services for children and adolescents in rural areas, far from earthquake epicenters.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1932-6203",
doi="10.1371/journal.pone.0041665",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041665"
}