The prevalence and the predictive factors of acute stress disorder among survivors of road traffic accidents

Abstract

Objective To investigate and analyze the prevalence and risk factors of acute stress disorder (ASD) among survivors of road traffic accidents. Methods A total of 206 participants (168 men, 38 women) were administrated with the acute stress disorder scale(ASDS)2 to 23 days after the traffic accidents. Results There was a total of 61(29.6%) possible ASD patients among all participants. Women had more serious ASD symptoms than men (male: 36.70±11.42; female: 41.18±12.58; P<0.05), the married's ASD symptom severity was higher than the single's(married: 38.37±11.94; single/widowed/divorced: 30.86±8.37; P<0.01), people with low degree of education had more severe ASD symptoms than the people who had high degree of education (P <0.05); being elder(r=0.43, P<0.01), having fear / helpless / horror experience of accident (r=0.21, P<0.01) were significantly correlated with the severity of ASD symptoms. According to linear regression analysis, age could positively predicted ASD symptoms (β=0.29, P<0.01) too. Conclusion ASD is a common mental problems among Chinese survivors of road traffic accident, and the main predictive factors of ASD include gender, age, marital status, the degree of education, whether there is fear / helpless / horror experience of accident. Key words: Acute stress disorder; Prevalence; Prediction; Road Traffic Accidents