Posttraumatic stress disorder and community collective efficacy following the 2004 Florida hurricanes

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fullerton CS ; Liu X ; McKibben JB ; Reissman, Dori B. ; Sampson RJ ; Ursano RJ ; Wang L
• Description:
  There is a paucity of research investigating the relationship of community-level characteristics such as collective efficacy and posttraumatic stress following disasters. We examine the association of collective efficacy with probable posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity in Florida public health workers (n = 2249) exposed to the 2004 hurricane season using a multilevel approach. Anonymous questionnaires were distributed electronically to all Florida Department of Health personnel nine months after the 2004 hurricane season. The collected data were used to assess posttraumatic stress disorder and collective efficacy measured at both the individual and zip code levels. The majority of participants were female (80.42%), and ages ranged from 20 to 78 years (median = 49 years); 73.91% were European American, 13.25% were African American, and 8.65% were Hispanic. Using multi-level analysis, our data indicate that higher community-level and individual-level collective efficacy were associated with a lower likelihood of having posttraumatic stress disorder (OR = 0.93, CI = 0.88-0.98; and OR = 0.94, CI = 0.92-0.97, respectively), even after adjusting for individual sociodemographic variables, community socioeconomic characteristic variables, individual injury/damage, and community storm damage. Higher levels of community-level collective efficacy and individual-level collective efficacy were also associated with significantly lower posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity (b = -0.22, p<0.01; and b = -0.17, p<0.01, respectively), after adjusting for the same covariates. Lower rates of posttraumatic stress disorder are associated with communities with higher collective efficacy. Programs enhancing community collective efficacy may be an important part of prevention practices and possibly lead to a reduction in the rate of posttraumatic stress disorder post-disaster. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Demography Emergencies Mass Behavior Mental Disorders Mental Health Occupational Health Public Health Safety Stress, Psychological Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Analytical-processes Demographic-characteristics Emergency-response Group-behavior Health-surveys Humans Mental-disorders Mental-health Mental-stress Psychological-responses Psychological-stress Public-health Questionnaires Sociological-factors

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• ISSN:
  1932-6203
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Maryland ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  9
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043815
• Citation:
  PLoS One 2014 Feb; 9(2):e88467
• Contact Point Address:
  Carol S. Fullerton, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
• Email:
  cfullert@erols.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  PLoS One
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6f687e29272e601db41909f6234e50fce262087a0418819bacc2007f44d660f839f47e3bb33ce1cee63adfbd018daa6d8e2d879ca69929ac137cd18ff8e94925
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199703/cdc_199703_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 179.46 KB ]