Prevalence of and factors influencing posttraumatic stress disorder among mothers of children under five in Kabul, Afgha
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Prevalence of and factors influencing posttraumatic stress disorder among mothers of children under five in Kabul, Afghanistan, after decades of armed conflicts Kaoruko Seino*1, Takehito Takano2, Taufiq Mashal2,3, Shafiqullah Hemat2,4 and Keiko Nakamura1 Address: 1International Health, Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Bunkyo, Tokyo 1138519, Japan, 2Health Promotion, Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Bunkyo, Tokyo 1138519, Japan, 3National Expanded Program on Immunization Office, Ministry of Public Health, Afghanistan and 4Expanded Program on Immunization section, WHO Country Office, Afghanistan Email: Kaoruko Seino* - [email protected]; Takehito Takano - [email protected]; Taufiq Mashal - [email protected]; Shafiqullah Hemat - [email protected]; Keiko Nakamura - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 23 April 2008 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2008, 6:29
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-6-29
Received: 12 December 2007 Accepted: 23 April 2008
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/6/1/29 © 2008 Seino et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: In the period following wars and other forms of armed conflict, health and quality of life of mothers is a major concern as they have the closest contact with children. The present study was performed to examine the impact of exposure to events related to armed conflicts on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among women raising children, and to identify factors that alleviate the negative consequences of exposure to traumatic events. Methods: A structured interview survey was conducted in Kabul Province, Afghanistan, in 2006. The subjects were the mothers of children less than 5 years old randomly selected from 1400 households in Kabul Province, Afghanistan. Symptoms of PTSD were assessed according to the criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Exposure to traumatic events related to armed conflict, experience of hardship with regard to basic needs, resources that the subjects seek for mental health support, and socioeconomic variables were evaluated. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between PTSD symptoms and predictor variables. Results: The prevalence rate of PTSD among 1172 women participated in this study was 29.8%. The most prevalent symptom was arousal (74.8%), followed by re-experiencing (54.9%) and avoidance (33.7%). The prevalence rate of PTSD symptoms among subjects who reported having experienced at least one event related to armed conflict (52.7%) was significantly higher than that among those who reported no
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