Evaluating the Prevalence of PTSD among Children and Adolescents after Earthquakes and Floods: a Systematic Review and M
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Evaluating the Prevalence of PTSD among Children and Adolescents after Earthquakes and Floods: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Arash Akhavan Rezayat 1,2 & Saeed Sahebdel 2 & Sina Jafari 2 & Ali Kabirian 2 Amir Mohsen Rahnejat 3 & Ramin Hamidi Farahani 2 & Reza Mosaed 4,5 & Mohammad Ghasemi Nour 2
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Accepted: 30 August 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Our study systematically reviews articles about the prevalence of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among children and adolescents, aiming to evaluate its prevalence after earthquakes and floods.Three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for articles published from 1981 to 2019 containing information on PTSD prevalence among survivors of earthquakes and floods. Articles with insufficient data on the prevalence of PTSD or without any available full-text were excluded. Major study variables consist of the prevalence of PTSD of the included studies, gender, and the elapsed time after the disaster. The overall PTSD prevalence was determined using a fixedeffect model for eligible studies. Of 4107 studies listed using our search strategy, 439 underwent full-text review, 59 records included in the systematic review, and 39 records met the criteria for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of PTSD among children and adolescent survivors after earthquakes and floods was 19.2% (95%CI = 18.6–19.7%), 30.0% (95%CI = 29.5–30.6%), 24.4% (95%CI = 23.4–25.4%) and 20.4% (95%CI = 19.1–21.7%), in the first, second, third and fourth six-month intervals after the disaster, respectively. Our analysis also revealed that PTSD was more prevalent among girls (p < 0.001). The absence of psychological support for affected areas considerably increases the risk of PTSD among survivors. Our results indicated that children and adolescents, especially girls, are more vulnerable and should be in top priority. The governments should refine their policies on post-disaster services and run early screening, immediate intervention, and ongoing monitoring for PTSD, as well as mental and emotional supports. Keywords PTSD . Prevalence . Earthquakes . Floods . Children . Adolescents Arash Akhavan Rezayat and Saeed Sahebdel contributed equally to this work.
* Reza Mosaed [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Psychiatric Quarterly
Introduction Natural disasters traditionally cause physical and mental damage to human beings. Earthquakes and floods are the most destructive natural disasters [1, 2], breaking out and giving no time to protect or evacuate the nearby population. Moreover, frequent and tragic incidences of these disasters in recent decades have drawn lots of attention to such catastrophes and posttraumatic situations [3]. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), is a condition in which a person must experience a life-threatening traumatic event primarily, outside
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