Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Original Article

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Related Factors in Male Firefighters in a Metropolitan City: Deuk Yong Shin, Man Joong Jeon, Joon Sakong; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2012;24(4):397-409. Published online December 31, 2012; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2012.24.4.397

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted in order to evaluate the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related factors in male firefighters in Daegu, Korea.
METHODS
A total of 1,261 firefighters from fire stations in Daegu were the subjects of this study. Each firefighter completed a questionnaire on general and occupational matters, experience of traumatic events, and impact of event scale (IES). The IES questionnaire was administered to subjects in order to determine the high risk group for PTSD. We calculated the IES score and determined that an individual was abnormal if the IES score was over 26.
RESULTS
The average IES score of the firefighters was 11.0+/-14.3, and the prevalence of high risk firefighters with PTSD was 15.1%. It was found that 40 years of age, fire sergeant, and emergency medical service personnel showed higher prevalence of PTSD than other groups. The most experienced event among traumatic events was 'witness death of victims or patients'. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis for the high risk PTSD group showed that fire sergeant (OR=2.28, 95% CI: 1.28~4.06), fire lieutenant (OR=2.47, 95% CI: 1.14~5.37), fire captain (OR=2.88, 95% CI: 1.11~7.45), firefighting department (OR=2.04, 95% CI: 1.00~4.17), emergency medical service personnel (OR=3.68, 95% CI: 1.47~9.23), total frequency of traumatic events experienced (OR=1.01, 95% CI: 1.00~1.02), and total type of traumatic event experienced (OR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.25~1.46) were significant variables with regards to the reference group (fire fighter and administration department).
CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that the prevalence of PTSD in firefighters is higher than that in the general population, and fire sergeant, fire lieutenant, fire captain, emergency medical service personnel, firefighting department, total frequency of traumatic events experienced, and total type of traumatic event experienced were significant variables for the PTSD high risk group.

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Original Article

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Related Factors in Firefighters of a Firestation: Soon Chan Kwon, Jaechul Song, Soo Jin Lee, Inah Kim, Jaewoo Koh, Hyunchul Ryou, Seok Hyun Kim, Daeho Kim, Seung Ah Jung; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2008;20(3):193-204. Published online September 30, 2008; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2008.20.3.193

Abstract PDF

OBJECTIVES
To investigate the factors related with posttraumatic symptoms and to estimate the prevalence of posttraumatic disorder of urban male firefighters.
METHODS
From a study sample comprising 260 male firefighters from one fire station, the responses from 146 who had experienced one or more traumatic events, responded to the 'Impact of Event Scale-Revised Korean version' (IES-R-K) and didn't show any evidence of depression were analyzed. We surveyed the firefighters using a self-administered questionnaire including general characteristics, job-related characteristics, IES-R-K, and a 'Firefighters and paramedics' incident stressor'.
RESULTS
The mean value of IES-R-K in this study was 11.3 and it was higher in the married firefighters than in the unmarried firefighters (p=0.005) and in the 24-hr shift workers than in the ordinary day shift workers (p=0.032). The frequency of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of the firefighters in this study using IES-R-K was 13.7%, with a cutoff point of 24/25. The overall number of experiences of 25 traumatic events was larger in emergency medical personnel and rescue workers than in other work functions (p=0.000).
CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of PTSD symptoms in firefighters was estimated to 13.7% using IES-RK and was higher than the prevalence of PTSD in the general population. A program to manage the mental health and provide early detection for mental illness for firefighters is needed.

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