Prevalence of stressful life events and their association with post-traumatic stress disorder among youth attending secondary school in Haiti

• Published in: Psychiatry research 2018-11, Vol.269, p.369-375
• Main Authors: Grelotti, David J., Gerbasi, Margaret E., Eustache, Eddy, Fils-Aimé, J. Reginald, Thérosmé, Tatiana, Severe, Jennifer, Raviola, Giuseppe J., Darghouth, Sarah, Legha, Rupinder, Pierre, Ermaze L., Affricot, Emmeline, Alcindor, Yoldie, Boyd, Katherine, Becker, Anne E., Smith Fawzi, Mary C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Anxiety disorders; Caribbean region; Disasters; Earthquakes; Exposure to violence; Exposure to Violence - psychology; Exposure to Violence - statistics & numerical data; Female; Haiti - epidemiology; High school; Humans; Life Change Events; Male; Mental health; Prevalence; PTSD; Schools - statistics & numerical data; Sexual abuse; Sexual assault; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Students - psychology; Transitional-aged youth; Trauma; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.08.074

•There is a high burden of traumatic events in earthquake-affected Haitian youth.•Sexual assault, but not earthquake, showed a significant association with PTSD.•Interpersonal violence had a greater impact on PTSD than natural disaster. The association between earthquakes and youth post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been well described, but little is known about the relationship between other stressful life events (SLEs) and PTSD among earthquake-affected youth. This study examines a variety of SLEs, including earthquake, and their association with PTSD among school-going Haitian youth following a major earthquake in 2010. In 2013, we assessed 120 students ages 18–22 for PTSD and other SLEs using a modified Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)-based interview and the Stressful Life Events Checklist (SLE Checklist). Only 51.7% of participants on the SLE Checklist and 31.7% in the interview endorsed being affected by the earthquake or another disaster. Sexual assault showed the strongest association with PTSD in multivariable logistic regression. Contrary to our hypothesis, exposure to earthquake or another disaster was not significantly associated with current PTSD. In this population, exposure to interpersonal violence may have had a greater impact on PTSD risk than exposure to natural disaster. These data underscore the need to examine and reduce both acute and chronic stressors among disaster-affected youth.