Cargando…

Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents

Background: Although the family constitutes the prime source of risk and resilience for the well-being of children growing up in adverse conditions, the mental health of children living in refugee camps has rarely been investigated in conjunction with their parents’ mental health. Objectives: To exa...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Scharpf, Florian, Kyaruzi, Edna, Landolt, Markus A., Hecker, Tobias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6807941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31681466
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1676005
_version_ 1783461730011054080
author Scharpf, Florian
Kyaruzi, Edna
Landolt, Markus A.
Hecker, Tobias
author_facet Scharpf, Florian
Kyaruzi, Edna
Landolt, Markus A.
Hecker, Tobias
author_sort Scharpf, Florian
collection PubMed
description Background: Although the family constitutes the prime source of risk and resilience for the well-being of children growing up in adverse conditions, the mental health of children living in refugee camps has rarely been investigated in conjunction with their parents’ mental health. Objectives: To examine the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems among Burundian refugee children and their parents living in Tanzanian refugee camps and to identify patterns of comorbidity among children and their parents based on PTSD symptom levels and functional impairment. Methods: We recruited a representative sample of 230 children aged 7–15 years and both of their parents (n = 690) and conducted separate structured clinical interviews. Latent Class Analysis was applied to identify patterns of comorbidity. Results: Children and parents were exposed to multiple traumatic event types. In total, 5.7% of children fulfilled DSM-5 criteria for PTSD in the past month and 10.9% reported enhanced levels of other mental health problems. 42.6% indicated clinically significant functional impairment due to PTSD symptoms. PTSD prevalence was higher among mothers (32.6%) and fathers (29.1%). Latent Class Analysis (LCA) revealed a familial accumulation of PTSD symptoms as children with high symptom levels and impairment were likely to live in families with two traumatized parents. Conclusions: Although the number of children who need support for trauma-related mental health problems was relatively low, taking into account parental trauma could aid to identify at-risk children with elevated PTSD symptom levels and impairment even in the face of existing barriers to mental health care access for children in refugee camp settings (e.g. lack of targeted services, prioritization of managing daily stressors).
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6807941
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-68079412019-11-01 Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents Scharpf, Florian Kyaruzi, Edna Landolt, Markus A. Hecker, Tobias Eur J Psychotraumatol Basic Research Article Background: Although the family constitutes the prime source of risk and resilience for the well-being of children growing up in adverse conditions, the mental health of children living in refugee camps has rarely been investigated in conjunction with their parents’ mental health. Objectives: To examine the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems among Burundian refugee children and their parents living in Tanzanian refugee camps and to identify patterns of comorbidity among children and their parents based on PTSD symptom levels and functional impairment. Methods: We recruited a representative sample of 230 children aged 7–15 years and both of their parents (n = 690) and conducted separate structured clinical interviews. Latent Class Analysis was applied to identify patterns of comorbidity. Results: Children and parents were exposed to multiple traumatic event types. In total, 5.7% of children fulfilled DSM-5 criteria for PTSD in the past month and 10.9% reported enhanced levels of other mental health problems. 42.6% indicated clinically significant functional impairment due to PTSD symptoms. PTSD prevalence was higher among mothers (32.6%) and fathers (29.1%). Latent Class Analysis (LCA) revealed a familial accumulation of PTSD symptoms as children with high symptom levels and impairment were likely to live in families with two traumatized parents. Conclusions: Although the number of children who need support for trauma-related mental health problems was relatively low, taking into account parental trauma could aid to identify at-risk children with elevated PTSD symptom levels and impairment even in the face of existing barriers to mental health care access for children in refugee camp settings (e.g. lack of targeted services, prioritization of managing daily stressors). Taylor & Francis 2019-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6807941/ /pubmed/31681466 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1676005 Text en © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Basic Research Article
Scharpf, Florian
Kyaruzi, Edna
Landolt, Markus A.
Hecker, Tobias
Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title_full Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title_fullStr Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title_short Prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among Burundian refugee children and their parents
title_sort prevalence and co-existence of morbidity of posttraumatic stress and functional impairment among burundian refugee children and their parents
topic Basic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6807941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31681466
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1676005
work_keys_str_mv AT scharpfflorian prevalenceandcoexistenceofmorbidityofposttraumaticstressandfunctionalimpairmentamongburundianrefugeechildrenandtheirparents
AT kyaruziedna prevalenceandcoexistenceofmorbidityofposttraumaticstressandfunctionalimpairmentamongburundianrefugeechildrenandtheirparents
AT landoltmarkusa prevalenceandcoexistenceofmorbidityofposttraumaticstressandfunctionalimpairmentamongburundianrefugeechildrenandtheirparents
AT heckertobias prevalenceandcoexistenceofmorbidityofposttraumaticstressandfunctionalimpairmentamongburundianrefugeechildrenandtheirparents