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. 2019 Mar 21;14(3):e0213441.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213441. eCollection 2019.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses' Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

Sun Jae Jung  1   2 , Ashley Winning  3 , Andrea L Roberts  4 , Kristen Nishimi  3 , Qixuan Chen  5 , Paola Gilsanz  6 , Jennifer A Sumner  7 , Cristina A Fernandez  1 , Eric B Rimm  1   8 , Laura D Kubzansky  3 , Karestan C Koenen  1
Affiliations

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses' Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

Sun Jae Jung et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: The relation between TV viewing and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is controversial; prior work focused exclusively on whether TV viewing of disaster events constitutes a traumatic stressor that causes PTSD. This study evaluates a possible bidirectional relation between PTSD and TV viewing in community-dwelling women.

Methods: Data are from the PTSD subsample of the Nurses' Health II study, an ongoing prospective study of women aged 24-42 years at enrollment and who have been followed biennially (N = 50,020). Trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms (including date of onset) were assessed via the Brief Trauma Questionnaire and the Short Screening Scale for DSM-IV PTSD. Average TV viewing was reported at 5 times over 18 years of follow-up. Linear mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns by trauma/PTSD status. Among women with trauma/PTSD onset during follow-up (N = 14,374), linear spline mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns before and after PTSD onset.

Results: Women with high PTSD symptoms reported more TV viewing (hours/wk) compared to trauma-unexposed women at all follow-up assessments (β = 0.14, SE = 0.01, p < .001). Among the women who experienced trauma during follow-up, significant increases in TV viewing (hours/day) prior to onset of high PTSD symptom levels were evident (β = 0.15, SE = 0.02, p < .001).

Conclusions: TV viewing following trauma exposure may be a marker of vulnerability for developing PTSD and also a consequence of having PTSD. High TV viewing levels may be linked with ineffective coping strategies or social isolation, which increase risk of developing PTSD.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flowchart of exclusions for deriving the analytic samples.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Age-adjusted predicted TV viewing trajectory over time by trauma/PTSD group among full sample (N = 50, 020) (*Groups with no PTSD(with Trauma exposure), 1–3 PTSD symptoms, 4–5 PTSD symptoms and 6–7 PTSD symptoms were all significantly different from the no trauma group, p<0.001).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Age-adjusted predicted television viewing trajectory over time by trauma/PTSD group, before and after trauma/PTSD onset, among subsample.
(n = 14, 374). Notes: Includes women with trauma/PTSD onset during follow-up, between 1991–2009 (n = 14, 374). Zero marks the year of trauma/PTSD onset. PTSD characterized in association with worst trauma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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