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Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study
BACKGROUND: Norway experienced two terror attacks on July 22, 2011. A car bomb exploded in the Oslo government district killing eight people. Shortly after, 69 adolescents gathered at a political youth camp were shot and killed at Utøya Island. First responders were exposed to multiple risk factors...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25888472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13049-015-0104-4 |
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author | Skogstad, Laila Fjetland, Anja M Ekeberg, Øivind |
author_facet | Skogstad, Laila Fjetland, Anja M Ekeberg, Øivind |
author_sort | Skogstad, Laila |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Norway experienced two terror attacks on July 22, 2011. A car bomb exploded in the Oslo government district killing eight people. Shortly after, 69 adolescents gathered at a political youth camp were shot and killed at Utøya Island. First responders were exposed to multiple risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated the degree of perceived peritraumatic strain among police officers, fire-fighters, and ambulance personnel, as well as the prevalence and predictors of PTSS. A questionnaire was completed by 89 ambulance personnel, 73 fire-fighters, and 76 police officers working close to the terror sites, 8–11 months after the event. PTSS were assessed using the PTSD Check List (PCL-S). RESULTS: Merging all groups, 68% reported to have witnessed injured/dead people, but only 5.7% reported this as very/extremely strainful. The PCL-S scores were low and not significantly different among the three professions (Median = 19-20, range 17-64). The prevalence of possible PTSD (cut-off > 50) was 1.3 %, and 2 % had scores indicating sub-threshold PTSD. Dissociation predicted higher PTSS-level in all groups (β 1.6-5.1), witnessing injured/dead among ambulance personnel (β 2.5) and feeling overwhelmed among police officers (β 1.2). CONCLUSION: First responders were exposed to deaths, injuries, and destruction, but few reported this as highly stressful. The prevalence of possible PTSD was low in all occupational groups, and symptoms of dissociation were found to be the most important predictor. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4462086 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44620862015-06-11 Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study Skogstad, Laila Fjetland, Anja M Ekeberg, Øivind Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med Original Research BACKGROUND: Norway experienced two terror attacks on July 22, 2011. A car bomb exploded in the Oslo government district killing eight people. Shortly after, 69 adolescents gathered at a political youth camp were shot and killed at Utøya Island. First responders were exposed to multiple risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated the degree of perceived peritraumatic strain among police officers, fire-fighters, and ambulance personnel, as well as the prevalence and predictors of PTSS. A questionnaire was completed by 89 ambulance personnel, 73 fire-fighters, and 76 police officers working close to the terror sites, 8–11 months after the event. PTSS were assessed using the PTSD Check List (PCL-S). RESULTS: Merging all groups, 68% reported to have witnessed injured/dead people, but only 5.7% reported this as very/extremely strainful. The PCL-S scores were low and not significantly different among the three professions (Median = 19-20, range 17-64). The prevalence of possible PTSD (cut-off > 50) was 1.3 %, and 2 % had scores indicating sub-threshold PTSD. Dissociation predicted higher PTSS-level in all groups (β 1.6-5.1), witnessing injured/dead among ambulance personnel (β 2.5) and feeling overwhelmed among police officers (β 1.2). CONCLUSION: First responders were exposed to deaths, injuries, and destruction, but few reported this as highly stressful. The prevalence of possible PTSD was low in all occupational groups, and symptoms of dissociation were found to be the most important predictor. BioMed Central 2015-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4462086/ /pubmed/25888472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13049-015-0104-4 Text en © Skogstad et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Skogstad, Laila Fjetland, Anja M Ekeberg, Øivind Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title | Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title_full | Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title_fullStr | Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title_full_unstemmed | Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title_short | Exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in Norway on July 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
title_sort | exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms among first responders working in proximity to the terror sites in norway on july 22, 2011 – a cross-sectional study |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25888472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13049-015-0104-4 |
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