Adverse childhood experiences, exposure to a natural disaster and posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors of the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami

Abstract

Aims.To investigate whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) modify the impact of exposure to a natural disaster (the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami) on the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among older people.Methods.Data were collected as part of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), which is an on-going epidemiological survey investigating social determinants of health among older people across Japan. Information on PTSD symptoms based on the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health, traumatic exposure to the earthquake (i.e., house damage and loss of relatives/friends during the earthquake/tsunami) and ACEs was obtained from 580 participants aged 65 or older living in Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, which suffered severe damage as a result of the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami in March 2011. Associations were examined using Poisson regression analysis with a robust variance estimator after adjusting for covariates.Results.The prevalence of PTSD was 9.7% in this population; compared to those with no traumatic experience, the prevalence of PTSD was approximately two times higher among those who experienced the loss of close friends/relatives (PR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.11–3.03, p = 0.018), or whose house was damaged (PR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.07–4.34, p = 0.032). ACE was not significantly associated with PTSD. Stratified analyses by the presence of ACE showed that damage due to the earthquake/tsunami was associated with PTSD only among those without ACEs; more specifically, among non-ACE respondents the PR of PTSD associated with house damage was 6.67 (95% CI = 1.66–26.80), while for the loss of a relative or a close friend it was 3.56 (95% CI = 1.18–10.75). In contrast, no statistically significant associations were observed among those with ACEs.Conclusion.Following the Great East Japan earthquake/tsunami in 2011 a higher risk of developing PTSD symptoms was observed in 2013 especially among older individuals without ACEs. This suggests that ACEs might affect how individuals respond to subsequent traumatic events later in life.

Family Socioeconomic Status and Exposure to Childhood Trauma: Racial Differences

“…This is because the consequences of trauma are intensity-dependent; thus, there is a need to collect data on the number of traumatic events. Multiple traumas (2+) are an indicator of a more stressful situation and have a stronger effect on a wide range of psychosocial outcomes [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 ].…”

Long-term Trends in Mental Health Disorders After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

“…Thus, the reliability and validity of this measure are reasonably high, and this measure was used in our previous studies. 14,16…”

Is the psychological impact of exposure to COVID-19 stronger in adolescents with pre-pandemic maltreatment experiences? A survey of rural Chinese adolescents

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, 20–40 % Chinese adolescents were found to be prone to serious psychological problems in particular anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms ( Liang et al, 2020 ; Xie et al, 2020 ). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including maltreatment experiences have been found to predict adolescents’ mental health outcomes in trauma contexts ( Inoue et al, 2019 ; Rinne-Albers et al, 2017 ), but the relation between adverse childhood experiences and mental health consequences during the COVID-19 outbreak still is uncharted territory.…”

“…Some previous studies point into the direction of elevated vulnerability to future adversities. For example, ACEs may enhance the risk of PTSD after exposure to later threatening events like natural disasters ( Inoue et al, 2019 ). Furthermore, in a man-made life-threatening war, veterans with a greater number of ACEs were found to be at an increased risk of PTSD in some studies ( Cabrera, Hoge, Bliese, Castro, & Messer, 2007 ; Fritch, Mishkind, Reger, & Gahm, 2010 ), but this result could not be replicated in some other studies ( Rudenstine et al, 2015 ; Stein et al, 2005 ).…”