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
. 2007 Jan;97(1):99-101.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.071167. Epub 2006 Nov 30.

Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in a coastal fishing village in Tamil Nadu, India, after the December 2004 tsunami

M Suresh Kumar  1 , Manoj V Murhekar, Yvan Hutin, Thilakavathi Subramanian, Vidya Ramachandran, Mohan D Gupte
Affiliations

Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in a coastal fishing village in Tamil Nadu, India, after the December 2004 tsunami

M Suresh Kumar et al. Am J Public Health. 2007 Jan.

Abstract

Two months after the December 2004 tsunami in Tamil Nadu, India, we surveyed adults aged 18 years or older in a severely affected coastal village using structured interviews and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder was 12.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]=9.4%, 17.1%), and odds of posttraumatic stress disorder were higher among individuals with no household incomes, women, and those injured during the tsunami. In addition to promoting feelings of safety, interventions aimed toward populations affected by the December 2004 tsunami need to focus on income-generating activities. Also, there is a need to target initiatives toward women and those individuals injured during the tsunami, given that these groups are more likely to experience posttraumatic stress disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. United Nations Children’s Fund. UNICEF response to Indian Ocean emergency as of March 12, 2005. Available at: http://www.unicef.org/media/files/UNICEFResponse12March2005.pdf. Accessed April 5, 2005.
    1. World Health Organization. Situation data on tsunami—India. Available at: http://www.whoindia.org/SDE/EHA/Tsunami/Map/011805-SITRE. Accessed April 26, 2004.
    1. Mollica RF, Caspi-Yavin Y, Bollini P, et al. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire: validating a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder in Indochinese refugees. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1992;180:111–116. - PubMed
    1. Kleijn WC, Hovens JE, Rodenburg JJ. Posttraumatic stress symptoms in refugees: assessments with the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 in different languages. Psychol Rep. 2001;88:527–532. - PubMed
    1. Lopes Cardozo B, Vergara A, Agani F, Gotway CA. Mental health, social functioning, and attitudes of Kosovar Albanians following the war in Kosovo. JAMA. 2000;284:569–577. - PubMed

MeSH terms