The association between post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and the quality of life among Wenchuan earthquake survivors: the role of social support as a moderator

Zhao, Changyi; Wu, Zhibin; Xu, Jiuping

doi:10.1007/s11136-012-0197-4

Cited by 55 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…We also found further evidence of the positive effect of perceived social support on the women’s happiness one and 4 years after the storm when examining the long-term determinants of the women’s happiness, which suggest that that social support is an important element for the recovery of victims of natural disasters. Similar results have been reported by other studies that have documented the protective effect of social support on exposure to Hurricane Katrina (Lowe et al 2010), and on the quality of life of survivors of earthquakes occurred in Iran (Ardalan et al 2011) and China (Lin et al 2002; Wang et al 2000; Zhao et al 2013). …”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

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Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Calvo

Arcaya²,

Baum

et al. 2014

J Happiness Stud

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This study investigated pre- to post-disaster changes in happiness of 491 women affected by Hurricane Katrina, and identified factors that were associated with the survivors’ happiness after the storm. Participants completed surveys approximately 1 year before and 1 and 4 years after the storm. The surveys collected information on the women’s happiness, social support, household characteristics, and hurricane exposure. We found that happiness significantly decreased from pre-disaster to 1 year post-disaster but there were no significant differences in happiness between the pre-disaster and 4 years post-disaster assessments. An exception were 38 women who continued to have lower levels of happiness 4 years post-disaster than at pre-disaster. These women were more likely to be living on their own after the storm and reported consistently lower levels of perceived social support from the community both before and after the storm than the other women of the sample. Factors associated with the survivor’s happiness after the storm included exposure to hurricane stressors and losing a loved one to the hurricane. These were predictive of lower happiness 1 year post-disaster. Four years after the hurricane only exposure to hurricane stressors was predictive of lower levels of happiness. In contrast, pre-disaster happiness and post-disaster social support were protective against the negative effect of the hurricane on survivors’ happiness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In addition, a recent study on the association between post-traumatic stress disorder and the quality of life among Wenchuan earthquake survivors found that perceived social support weakened the negative effect of PTSD on the quality of life of the survivors 1 year after the disaster (Zhao et al 2013). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Calvo

Arcaya²,

Baum

et al. 2014

J Happiness Stud

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“…Symptom severity is a robust and reliable predictor of service utilization (37-43), and is also highly correlated with social support (10-12, 44). In National Guard soldiers, greater psychiatric medication usage was related to both reduced postdeployment social support and greater PTSD severity (19).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In assessing the potential barriers and facilitators of treatment engagement, social support has emerged as a potentially important factor (4). Lack of social support is associated with an increased likelihood of developing PTSD after a traumatic event (5-9) and greater severity of PTSD among those with the disorder (10-12). However, the collected findings on the relationship between social support and mental health care engagement are equivocal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Support and Mental Health Treatment Among Persons With PTSD: Results of a Nationally Representative Survey

Sripada¹,

Pfeiffer²,

Rauch³

et al. 2015

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Objective Despite continued outreach efforts, levels of mental healthcare utilization for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain low. As such, it is important to identify factors that may promote or discourage treatment engagement. The current study was designed to examine the association between perceived social support and utilization of several types of PTSD services. Methods Data come from the second wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), which was administered between 2004 and 2005. PTSD was assessed via structured interview, and perceived social support was assessed via the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 (ISEL-12). Participants were asked about PTSD-specific treatment of the following modalities: outpatient, hospitalization, emergency department visits, and psychiatric medication prescriptions. Weighted logistic regression modeling was performed to examine associations between social support scores and the odds of receiving treatment for PTSD, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and PTSD severity. Results The final sample consisted of 2811 individuals with PTSD. Social support was not associated with the odds of receiving any type of PTSD treatment. Conclusions Among individuals in the general population with PTSD, perceived social support may not be related to PTSD treatment utilization. Other factors such as sociodemographic characteristics and symptom severity may be more important with respect to receiving PTSD-specific treatment.

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“…The association between poor QOL and earthquake-induced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been widely investigated in recent literature [8,11]. People’s well-being after loss resulting from an earthquake is currently a concern in countries exposed to natural disasters both for public health reasons and for the economical sustainability of specific interventions [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A longitudinal study of quality of life of earthquake survivors in L’Aquila, Italy

et al. 2013

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BackgroundPeople’s well-being after loss resulting from an earthquake is a concern in countries prone to natural disasters. Most studies on post-earthquake subjective quality of life (QOL) have focused on the effects of psychological impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the psychological dimension of QOL. However, there is a need for studies focusing on QOL in populations not affected by PTSD or psychological impairment. The aim of this study was to estimate QOL changes over an 18-month period in an adult population sample after the L’Aquila 2009 earthquake.MethodsThe study was designed as a longitudinal survey with four repeated measurements performed at six monthly intervals. The setting was the general population of an urban environment after a disruptive earthquake. Participants included 397 healthy adult subjects. Exclusion criteria were comorbidities such as physical, psychological, psychiatric or neurodegenerative diseases at the beginning of the study. The primary outcome measure was QOL, as assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. A generalised estimating equation model was run for each WHOQOL-BREF domain.ResultsOverall, QOL scores were observed to be significantly higher 18 months after the earthquake in all WHOQOL-BREF domains. The model detected an average increase in the physical QOL scores (from 66.6 ± 5.2 to 69.3 ± 4.7), indicating a better overall physical QOL for men. Psychological domain scores (from 64.9 ± 5.1 to 71.5 ± 6.5) were observed to be worse in men than in women. Levels at the WHOQOL domain for psychological health increased from the second assessment onwards in women, indicating higher resiliency. Men averaged higher scores than women in terms of social relationships and the environmental domain. Regarding the physical, psychological and social domains of QOL, scores in the elderly group (age > 60) were observed to be similar to each other regardless of the significant covariates used.ConclusionsWHOQOL-BREF scores of the psychological domain displayed trends conditioned by age and education: older subjects experienced less satisfaction with psychological health on average. Less-educated subjects always demonstrated the worst QOL scores. Gender, age and education impacted the variability of QOL in the environmental dimension in the elderly.

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The association between post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and the quality of life among Wenchuan earthquake survivors: the role of social support as a moderator

Abstract: Subjective support and support availability are more useful strategies to improve the QOL of the earthquake survivors with PTSD symptoms.

Cited by 55 publications

References 36 publications

Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Social Support and Mental Health Treatment Among Persons With PTSD: Results of a Nationally Representative Survey

A longitudinal study of quality of life of earthquake survivors in L’Aquila, Italy

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