Differentiating Posttraumatic Stress Between Elderly and Younger Residents

Abstract

This study aimed to differentiate between the posttraumatic stress responses of elderly and younger community residents who had been exposed to two technological disasters (a train collision and an aircraft crash). One hundred and forty-eight community residents were assessed using the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). The results showed that age differences were not affected by impact of disaster (IES), suggesting that elderly and younger community residents responded to the disasters similarly. Instead, the community residents exposed to the aircraft crash experienced significantly more intrusion and avoidance than those exposed to the train collision. Also, the community residents who had experienced high exposure to the disasters had significantly more intrusive thoughts and exhibited significantly more avoidance behavior than the low/medium exposure group. The results also showed no main effects in general health between the elderly and younger community residents, suggesting that their health status was similar. Instead, the community residents exposed to the aircraft crash had significantly more general health problems than the train disaster residents and the control group. Also, the community residents in either the low/medium or the high exposure group experienced more general health problems than the control group. Correlation coefficients showed that intrusion, avoidance, and the total impact of the disasters were significantly correlated with all general health subscales for both elderly and younger groups.