Assessing prevalence of trauma and the risk of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among youths within the school community

Abstract

This study estimates the cumulative occurrence of traumatic events and the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-V) criteria, in a high-risk sample of youth in urban city of Lagos, Nigeria. Participants were interviewed about history of trauma and PTSD in 2011 – 2012 when their mean age was 16.5 years (n = 1, 702). The study revealed that the lifetime occurrence of assaultive violence was 62.5% in males and 33.6% in females. Females had a higher risk of PTSD than males following assaultive violence (odds ratio = 4.0, 95%) confidence interval (2.0 – 8.3), but not following other traumas. The findings of this study of youth in urban city in Lagos reveal (i)A high proportion of males 62.5% had experience one or more events involving assaultive violence: 20.3% had been mugged/threatened with a weapon, and 24.2% had been shot/stabbed.(ii) The overall conditional risk of PTSD was 8.7%; the PTSD risk following assaultive violence was the highest (16.3%).(iii) Females’ conditional risk of PTSD following exposure to assaultive violence was higher than that of males; females’ risk of PTSD did not exceed that of males following other event categories. A comparison of the results from this heterogeneous sample of youth from urban city of Lagos with the results from study of suburban sample in which the same criteria and measures of trauma and PTSD were used suggested the possibility that males’ risk for assaultive violence and females’ risk for PTSD following exposure to assaultive violence might vary by characteristics of the environment especially social environment.

Keywords: Youths, Urban Trauma, Risk , PTSD