Abstract
Earthquake survivors are a diverse population. This study focused on a special group of earthquake survivors, who had still stayed in temporary housing camps for about 2 years after China's Wenchuan Earthquake rather than those who moved back to rebuild their lives or immigrated to large cities to seek new lives. The research goals were to (1) assess their sleep problems as well as their PTSD, depression and anxiety and (2) examine the relationship between different dimensions of sleep quality and PTSD, depression, and anxiety among these survivors. Three-hundred and eighty seven earthquake survivors who remained in temporary housing camps and had sleep problems were recruited 17–27 months after Wenchuan Earthquake. Four standardized instruments-The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version, Self-rating Depression Scale, Self-rating Anxiety Scale, and face-to-face one-on-one structured interviews were used to assess these survivors' sleep quality, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. It was found that (1) 83.20% of these survivors reported having sleep problems, and 79.33% of them considered insomnia as the most common sleep problem; (2) 12.14% suffered PTSD, 36.43% experienced depression, and 38.24% had anxiety; (3) sleep disturbance, sleep medication use, and subjective sleep quality were significantly related to PTSD; (4) habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance, sleep medication use, and daytime dysfunction were significantly related to depression; and (5) sleep disturbance, sleep medication use, and daytime dysfunction were significantly related to anxiety. Clinic implications of the study are discussed.
Highlights
Earthquakes, as one of the major natural disasters, have strongly associated with various problems of psychiatric morbidity, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety among Earthquake survivors (Maj et al, 1989; Wood et al, 1992; Kato et al, 1996; Krakow et al, 2000; Chen et al, 2007; Chung et al, 2010; George et al, 2012)
The present study provided unique empirical evidence of sleep problems and psychiatric comorbidities which are associated with each other among Wenchuan Earthquake survivors who remained in temporary housing camps
The literature indicates that Asian earthquake survivors tend to express their stress with somatization
Summary
Earthquakes, as one of the major natural disasters, have strongly associated with various problems of psychiatric morbidity, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety among Earthquake survivors (Maj et al, 1989; Wood et al, 1992; Kato et al, 1996; Krakow et al, 2000; Chen et al, 2007; Chung et al, 2010; George et al, 2012). We deliberately took sleep problems as our primary research focus and explored different dimensions of sleep quality in related to PTSD, anxiety, and depression For those survivors who remained in temporary housing camps as a vulnerable group, understanding, and addressing their daily sleep problems could be an innovative intervention strategy to use one stone to kill two birds, if certain relationships between sleep disorders and psychiatric symptoms can be found. The present study attempted to achieve two goals: (1) assess sleep problems as well as their PTSD, depression and anxiety among the Wenchuan earthquake survivors who remained in temporary housing camps and (2) examine the relationship between different dimensions of sleep quality and PTSD, depression, and anxiety among these survivors
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