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Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later

BACKGROUND: Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in south-east Asia and is still emerging from the events of the Khmer Rouge reign. It has been suggested that the atrocities experienced by the Cambodian population can explain why Cambodia continues to lag behind its neighbours in economic outcom...

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Autores principales: Jarl, Johan, Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth, Chak, Thida, Sunbaunat, Ka, Larsson, Charlotte A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4547808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26301591
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136410
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author Jarl, Johan
Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth
Chak, Thida
Sunbaunat, Ka
Larsson, Charlotte A
author_facet Jarl, Johan
Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth
Chak, Thida
Sunbaunat, Ka
Larsson, Charlotte A
author_sort Jarl, Johan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in south-east Asia and is still emerging from the events of the Khmer Rouge reign. It has been suggested that the atrocities experienced by the Cambodian population can explain why Cambodia continues to lag behind its neighbours in economic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is an association between exposure to past trauma and/or current poor mental health and current economic status in Cambodia. METHOD: A newly conducted survey performed in two regions (north-west and south-east Cambodia) collected information on trauma exposure, psychiatric symptoms, self-rated health outcomes and socio-economic information for 3200 persons aged 18–60. Economic outcomes were measured as household debt and poverty status and whether the respondent was economically inactive. All models were analysed using logistic regression. RESULTS: No association was found between high exposure to conflict-related or civilian trauma and any economic outcomes save for a negative association between civilian trauma and poverty in the south-east. Current post-traumatic stress was related solely to poverty status. All other measures of current mental health status, however, were found to be strongly negatively associated with all measures of economic status. Thus, mental health interventions could potentially be utilised in poverty reduction strategies, but greater efficacy is likely to be achieved by targeting current mental health status rather than previous trauma exposure.
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spelling pubmed-45478082015-09-01 Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later Jarl, Johan Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth Chak, Thida Sunbaunat, Ka Larsson, Charlotte A PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in south-east Asia and is still emerging from the events of the Khmer Rouge reign. It has been suggested that the atrocities experienced by the Cambodian population can explain why Cambodia continues to lag behind its neighbours in economic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is an association between exposure to past trauma and/or current poor mental health and current economic status in Cambodia. METHOD: A newly conducted survey performed in two regions (north-west and south-east Cambodia) collected information on trauma exposure, psychiatric symptoms, self-rated health outcomes and socio-economic information for 3200 persons aged 18–60. Economic outcomes were measured as household debt and poverty status and whether the respondent was economically inactive. All models were analysed using logistic regression. RESULTS: No association was found between high exposure to conflict-related or civilian trauma and any economic outcomes save for a negative association between civilian trauma and poverty in the south-east. Current post-traumatic stress was related solely to poverty status. All other measures of current mental health status, however, were found to be strongly negatively associated with all measures of economic status. Thus, mental health interventions could potentially be utilised in poverty reduction strategies, but greater efficacy is likely to be achieved by targeting current mental health status rather than previous trauma exposure. Public Library of Science 2015-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4547808/ /pubmed/26301591 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136410 Text en © 2015 Jarl et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jarl, Johan
Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth
Chak, Thida
Sunbaunat, Ka
Larsson, Charlotte A
Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title_full Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title_fullStr Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title_full_unstemmed Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title_short Trauma and Poor Mental Health in Relation to Economic Status: The Case of Cambodia 35 Years Later
title_sort trauma and poor mental health in relation to economic status: the case of cambodia 35 years later
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4547808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26301591
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136410
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