Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Aug;60(8):675-82.
doi: 10.1136/jech.2005.041897.

Impacts of media coverage on the community stress level in Hong Kong after the tsunami on 26 December 2004

Joseph T F Lau  1 , Mason Lau, Jean H Kim, Hi Yi Tsui
Affiliations

Impacts of media coverage on the community stress level in Hong Kong after the tsunami on 26 December 2004

Joseph T F Lau et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2006 Aug.

Abstract

Study objectives: The study investigated the prevalence and associated factors (media coverage in particular) of stress related responses to the December 2004 tsunami.

Design: An anonymous population based cross sectional telephone survey was conducted. Post-traumatic stress symptom was measured by the locally validated Chinese impact of event scale (CIES) and whether the respondent felt disturbed, apprehensive, or horrified because of the tsunami. Items related to media coverage included measures on frequency of exposure, level of distress caused by different types of images, and contents of the news messages were measured. Two summative scores, the weighted image unrest score (WIUS) and weighted content unrest score (WCUS) were formed.

Setting: Hong Kong, China.

Participants: A total of 604 adult Chinese respondents were interviewed.

Main results: Of the respondents, 33.8% were exposed to tsunami related mass media news reports >10 times per day; 56.5% to 64.7% felt severely or very severely disturbed by the six studied types of distressful messages; 52.6% to 71.4% felt similarly because of the eight studied types of distressful contents. Of the male respondents, 30% and 5.9% respectively showed signs of mild or moderate/severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (39% and 8.7%, respectively for women). Higher WIUS and higher WCUS were associated with mild or moderate/severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (multivariate OR = 1.72 to 14.67, p<0.05). These media exposure indicators, together with some other perception variables, were significantly associated with other stress indicators.

Conclusions: The intensive media coverage of the tsunami was consistently associated with different types of tsunami related stress indicators.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: none declared.

References

    1. Vlahov D, Galea S, Ahern J.et al Sustained increased consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among Manhattan residents after September 11, 2001. Am J Public Health 200494253–254. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cardenas J, Williams K, Wilson J P.et al PSTD, major depressive symptoms, and substance abuse following September 11, 2001, in a midwestern university population. Int J Emerg Ment Health 2003515–28. - PubMed
    1. Lau J T, Yang X, Pang E.et al SARS‐related perceptions in Hong Kong. Emerg Infect Dis 200511417–424. - PMC - PubMed
    1. McAlonan G M, Lee A M, Cheung V.et al Psychological morbidity related to the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong. Psychol Med 200535459–460. - PubMed
    1. Blendon R J, Benson J M, DesRoches C M.et al The public's response to severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto and the United States. Clin Infect Dis 200438925–931. - PubMed

Publication types