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

Ursano-RJ; McKibben-JB; Reissman-DB; Liu-X; Wang-L; Sampson-RJ; Fullerton-CS

PLoS One 2014 Feb; 9(2):e88467

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088467

20043815

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.

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

Carol S. Fullerton, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

POLNCL

20140211

Journal Article

cfullert@erols.com

2014

M022014

2

1932-6203

OD

Public Library of Science One

MD; DC; MA