A meta-analysis on the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents

Abstract

Objective To estimate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) after earthquake among children and adolescents in China.Methods Publications between 2000 and 2013 were extracted from PubMed,Springer Link,Elsevier-SDOL,Chinese Biomedical and Medicine Literature Database (CBM),China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),Chinese Science and Technology Journal Databases (VIP) and Wanfang Databases.Observational studies on prevalence of PTSD among children and adolescents were included.Pooled prevalence of PTSD in children and adolescents was analyzed using the meta-analysis.Subgroup analysis was undertook by gender,questionnaires,studying stage,investigation time away from the onset of earthquake,characteristics of earthquake sites (quake-hit degree,resume school to other places or not).Results Nineteen papers were eligible for this study.Total number of participants was 22 159,with 5 627 PTSD cases identified.PTSD was present in 30.20％ of the children and adolescents (95％ CI 21.10-39.30).Subgroup analysis showed that the pooled prevalence of PTSD in girls (37.37％) and middle school group (33.07％) were higher than that in boys (30.54％) and primary and middle school mixed group (22.00％) respectively.Pooled prevalence of PTSD was 41.38％ by using impact of event scale-revised (IES-R),far higher than that tested by other scales.Besides,the lowest prevalence was 20.84％ using children' s revised impact of event scale (CRIES-13).Pooled prevalence of PTSD estimated within 6 months,with a year,and a year after earthquake was 42.49％,22.66％,and 22.83％ respectively.Children and adolescents relocated reported an increased prevalence of PTSD (47.62％) compared with those not resettled (25.68％).In the significant worst-hit area and worst-hit area,the pooled prevalence of PTSD was 30.94％ and 26.44％ respectively.Conclusions PTSD is prevalent among children and adolescents in China,especially for those from worst-hit area,those investigated in a short-time interval,females,senior-grade students,and students resuming life in new places.Therefore,more attention should be paid to the mental health of affected children and adolescents. Key words: Earthquake ; Stress disorders, post-traumatic ; Children ; Adolescents ; Meta analysis