PREVALENCE OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG TRAUMA SURVIVORS IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess the level and prevalence of trauma and its impact on individuals who faced trauma in their life. Cross sectional survey comprised of 153 trauma survivors with an age range of 18 to 67 years selected through purposive sampling. The demographics of trauma survivors were gender, age, family system, marital status, occupation, and nature of trauma survivors. PTSD Check List – Civilian Version (PCL-C) was used to measure posttraumatic stress disorder among trauma survivors. The trauma survivors' sample consisted of 54.9 percent males and 45.1 percent females. In relation to the nature of trauma, 29.4% had an accident in their family, 27.5 % faced trauma due to the death of a family member, 14.4 % faced trauma due to sexual abuse, 8.5% faced trauma due to an incident in the family, 5.9% encountered trauma due to earthquake, 5.2% faced trauma due to fire, 2.6% faced trauma due to loss in body parts, 2.0 percent faced trauma due to miscarriage and remaining 4.8% faced trauma due to others. The findings of the current study showed the male accident trauma survivors experienced 41% mild, 35% moderate and 24% severe PTSD symptoms while female exhibited 63% moderate and 37% severe PTSD symptoms. Female sexual abuse trauma survivors experienced 27% mild, 67% moderate, and 6% severe PTSD symptoms while male experienced moderate PTSD symptoms only. Males who experienced the death of a family member exhibited 20% mild, 65 % moderate, and 15% severe PTSD symptoms while females experienced 59 % moderate and 41% severe PTSD symptoms. In case of death of friend males 5% moderate, 5% severe PTSD symptoms and 4 % of females showed Moderate PTSD symptoms due to domestic violence. 5% of males revealed Moderate,10% severe while female revealed 4% mild,12 % moderate 8% severe symptoms of PTSD due to earthquake. 4 % of females showed mild and 8% severe PTSD symptoms due to miscarriage. 10% of males revealed mild,10% severe while female revealed 16% severe symptoms of PTSD due to fire. 5% of males revealed Moderate,5% severe due to occupation incidents. 5% of males revealed mild PTSD symptoms,15% moderate while females revealed 12.5% moderate, and 5% severe PTSD symptoms due to occupational incidents in the family. Among the trauma survivors of loss of business males showed 10% moderate and 10% severe PTSD symptoms. Among the trauma survivors of blast 5% of males showed mild and 4% of females showed severe PTSD symptoms. A demographic survey of the Hazara Division revealed females were more victims of trauma as compared to their male counterparts (t = 4.67, p < .001). Keywords: Prevalence, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Nature of Trauma, Gender