Postwar posttraumatic stress disorder: Prevalence and associated factors among adolescents and youths in Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder is the most common mental health disorder worldwide, affecting people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. Poor social support, being female, and presence of previous mental illness were associated with Posttraumatic stress disorder in previous studies. Despite studies conducted, the condition is not well known in the war torn Tigray, Ethiopia; therefore, this study assessed the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and associated factors among school adolescents and youths in Tigray. School based cross sectional study was conducted from November 1 to 30, 2024. A multistage random sampling technique was used to enroll a total sample of 604 participants. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were evaluated using the 20-item Checklist (PCL-5). Binary logistic regression was used to assess the association. The prevalence of Posttraumatic stress disorder was 31.6% with (95% CI = 27.8 to 35.3). Posttraumatic stress disorder were higher among females(AOR, 2.06; 95% CI 1.28, 3.31), close family member killed (AOR, 1.93; 95% CI 1.12, 3.31), being attacked, shot, stabbed, or seriously injured (AOR, 2.87; 95% CI 1.80, 4.57), around a war (AOR, 4.13; 95% CI 1.71, 9.98), being bullying (AOR, 1.70; 95% CI 1.01, 2.89), students with depression (AOR, 3.62; 95% CI 2.21, 5.92), and students with anxiety (AOR, 2.59; 95% CI 1.54, 4.37). People with moderate to strong social support were less likely to develop the condition compared to those with poor social support (AOR, 0.41; 95% CI 0.21, 0.82) and (AOR, 0.42; 95% CI 0.26, 0.70) respectively. Our findings showed that three out of ten students experienced Posttraumatic stress disorder. Being female, presence of social support, close family member was killed, seriously attacked, bullied, depressive and anxiety symptoms were the predictors. Policy makers need to integrate the mental health services for school adolescents and implement context-specific interventions to provide culturally sensitive social support.