Prevalence of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Its Associated Factors Among War-affected Residents in Woldia Town, North East Ethiopia, 2022; Community Based Cross-sectional Study

Abstract Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder is marked by increased stress and anxiety following exposure to a traumatic or stressful event. Events of conflict and war-related traumas were commonly reported situations and people who have undergone through have a higher tendency to develop PTSD, so this study aims to assess prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and its associated factors among war-affected residents in Woldia town, North East Ethiopia, 2022. Method: A community-based cross-sectional study design was employed by using a multi-stage systematic random sampling technique from May-15 to June-15/2022. A total of 609 participants were enrolled. PTSD was measured by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Data were entered by Epi data version 4.6.0.2 and analyzed using STATA version 14. Bivariable and Multivariable logistic regression analysis was done to identify associated factors to PTSD and P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The overall prevalence of PTSD was 56.28%. Destruction/looting of property (AOR=1.6,95%CI,1.11-2.47), murder/injury of family member (AOR=2.1,95% CI,1.37-3.22), witness of murder of family member/others (AOR=1.6,95% CI,1.01-2.71), unlawful imprisonment (AOR=1.7, 95%CI, 1.06-2.74), depression (AOR=2, 95%CI ,1.37-2.93), anxiety (AOR=3.3, 95%CI,2.26-4.97), experience trauma on themselves (AOR=2.0,95%CI,1.22-3.58), poor (AOR= 3.1,95%CI,1.60-6.04) and moderate (AOR= 3.0, 95%CI, 1.56-5.87) social support were statistically associated with PTSD at a p-value < 0.05. Conclusion: The study reveals that the prevalence of PTSD was high in Woldia town following an armed conflict between Federal Government and Tigray forces. Destruction/looting of property, murder/injury of family, witness murder of family/others, unlawful imprisonment, depression, anxiety, experience on themselves, poor and moderate social support were statistically associated with PTSD. Hence, encourage organization working on Mental health, routine patient assessment with a history of trauma, facilitating means to support affected residents is recommended.