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The Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Survivors After a Typhoon or Hurricane: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2019

Zhipeng Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Xin Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Wenjie Dai
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Atipatsa C. Kaminga
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, ChinaDepartment of Mathematics, Mzuzu University, Mzuzu, Malawi
Xiaoli Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Xiongfeng Pan
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Ziyan Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
Shiwu Wen
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, ChinaOttawa Hospital Research Institute, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaOMNI Research Group, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaSchool of Epidemiology, Public Health, and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Shixiong Hu
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hunan, China
Aizhong Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Aizhong Liu, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China (e-mail: lazroy@live.cn)
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Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder, which could be caused by traumatic events. The prevalence of PTSD among survivors after a typhoon or hurricane varied widely. Therefore, this study aimed to determine a combined prevalence of PTSD among survivors after a typhoon or hurricane. A systematic search of literature was performed in the 3 English databases: PubMed (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD), ISI Web of Science (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY), and Embase (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands). Also, a similar search was performed in the 2 Chinese databases such as Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang. Loney et al.’s criteria were used to evaluate the quality of the selected articles for this study. The combined prevalence of PTSD among the study population was estimated using the Freeman–Tukey double arcsine transformation method. Subgroup analyses and a meta-regression analysis were carried out to explore the origin of heterogeneity. Thirty-nine eligible articles were included in this study. They comprised 43 123 typhoon and hurricane survivors of which 9373 were diagnosed with PTSD. The combined prevalence of PTSD among this population was 17.81%. Subgroup analyses revealed that the combined prevalence of PTSD related to typhoon and hurricane Categories 5, 4, and 2 showing a corresponding decreasing tendency. About 18% of people who experienced a severe typhoon or hurricane develop PTSD with the prevalence decreasing with reduced severity of the typhoon or hurricane.

Information

Type
Systematic Review
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 
Figure 0

FIGURE 1PRISMA Flow Chart of Article Selection: Illustration of How Eligible Articles Were Selected.

Figure 1

TABLE 1Characteristics of Included Studies on the Prevalence of PTSD in Survivors After a Typhoon/Hurricane

Figure 2

FIGURE 2Forest Plot Showing the Pooled Prevalence of PTSD Among Survivors After a Typhoon or Hurricane.

Figure 3

TABLE 2Subgroup Analyses of the Prevalence of PTSD After a Hurricane or Typhoona

Figure 4

FIGURE 3Egger Plot of Literature on the Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Survivors After a Typhoon or Hurricane.