Study on posttraumatic stress disorders in a Tsunami affected community

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to study, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children aged 10-18 years in a Muslim community (as the selected community was Muslim) affected by the tsunami around one year of occurrence of tsunami in the Kinniya Divisional Secretariat. In the present study, an instrument ( Children's Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Inventory or Children's PTSD Inventory) was translated into Tamil and validated in a Muslim community to identify children with PTSD in the age group of 10 -18 years. Another questionnaire was prepared to identify the protective and risk factors for the development of PTSD. Both of the questionnaires were applied to a cohort of children affected and non-affected by tsunami. Then the factors, associated with presence/absence of PTSD in the community affected by tsunami were studied. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify the risk and protective factors for PTSD. The Tamil translation of the Children's PTSD Inventory was found to be valid and reliable. Parameters for criterion validity and reliability of the Inventor~ were high ((i.e. sensitivity = 0.94, specificity = 0.96, positive predictive power 0.89, negative predictive power = 0.98). Internal consistency was high (Crohnbach alpha = 73 to 88) and inter rater reliability was also high (kappa coefficients for each section ranged from 0.89 to 0.96 and for overall diagnosis it was 0.95). The results showed that the rate of PTSD among the children in the tsunami affected area was 36.6 percent and for the non-affected area it was 16.4 percent . The findings were almost similar to the findings in other national and international studies