Disability associated with exposure to traumatic events: results from a cross-sectional community survey in South Sudan

BMC Public Health

Edvard Hauff⁴  Rita Amok Albino⁵  Rachel Jenkins¹  Arne Henning Eide⁶  Lars Lien²  Touraj Ayazi³ 

[1] Department of Health Services and Population Research, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, David Goldberg Centre, De Crespigny Park, London, UK;Faculty of Public Health, Hedmark University College, P.O.Box 400, Elverum, 2418, Norway;Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O box 1171, Oslo, 0318, Norway;Division of Mental Health and Addiction Department of Research and Development, Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval, Kirkeveien 166, Building 20, Oslo, 0407, Norway;Ahfad University for Women, P.O. Box 167, Omdurman, SUDAN;SINTEF, Technology and Society, Pb. 124 Blindern, Oslo, 0314, Norway

关键词: South Sudan;    Post-conflict;    Traumatic events;    Disability;   

Others  :  1162212
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-469

 received in 2012-12-12, accepted in 2013-05-08,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

There is a general lack of knowledge regarding disability and especially factors that are associated with disability in low-income countries. We aimed to study the overall and gender-specific prevalence of disability, and the association between exposure to traumatic events and disability in a post-conflict setting.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional community based study of four Greater Bahr el Ghazal States, South Sudan (n = 1200). The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) was applied to investigate exposure to trauma events. Disability was measured using the Washington Group Short Measurement Set on Disability, which is an activity-based scale derived from the WHO’s International Classification of Disability, Functioning and Health.

Results

The estimated prevalence of disability (with severe difficulty) was 3.6% and 13.4% for disability with moderate difficulties. No gender differences were found in disability prevalence. Almost all participants reported exposure to at least one war-related traumatic event. The result of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that, for both men and women, exposure to traumatic events, older age and living in a polygamous marriage increased the likelihood of having a disability.

Conclusions

The finding of association between traumatic experience and disability underlines the precariousness of the human rights situation for individuals with disability in low-income countries. It also has possible implications for the construction of disability services and for the provision of health services to individuals exposed to traumatic events.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Ayazi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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