Investigation on prevalence and related risk factors of post traumatic stress disorder in rescue troops one year after Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

Objective To investigate the prevalence rate and the related risk factors of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in rescue troops one year after Wenchuan earthquake as science proofs of mental interven-tion. Methods 1176 officers/soldiers from rescue troops were tested with the questionnaire composed by General state of health questionnaire, PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), simple coping style questionnaire (SCSQ) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Students't test and correlation analysis were used to study the risk factors. Results One year after Wenehuan earthquake,the prevalence rate of PTSD was 3.45%. Compared with the norms of Chinese serviceman, some evaluative indexes' scores, including somatization(1.43±0.57),exterior(12.50±3.79)/interior and positive response factors(2.05±0.71), were higher(P<0.05), at the same time some evaluative indexes' scores, such as anxiety,depression,nervousness and negative response factor, were obviously lower(P<0.01). Correlation analysis showed total score of PLC-C was positively correlated with somatization, anxiety, depression and negative response factors, separately (P<0.01),but negatively correlated with exterior/interior and positive response factors, separately (P<0.01).Conclusion The psychological status of the earthquake-rescuers is basically normal one year after Wenchuan earthquake. The younger soldiers with less education,who have nervous,introversive character,are the emphasis crowd. Key words: Post traumatic stress disorder; Risk factor; Military