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A longitudinal study on emotional distress among local government staff seven years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China.
- Source :
-
BMC Public Health . 4/9/2021, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p1-9. 9p. 2 Charts, 1 Graph. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>The current study examined the change in local government staff's emotional distress over 7 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and the influence of earthquake exposure and professional quality of life (ProQOL) on emotional distress.<bold>Methods: </bold>This longitudinal study assessed 250 participants at 1 year after the earthquake; 162 (64.8%) were followed up at 7 years. Emotional distress was assessed with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) at both time points. We assessed ProQOL, including compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress, and earthquake exposure at 1 year. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were performed to test longitudinal changes in emotional distress. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to examine the effect of earthquake exposure and ProQOL.<bold>Results: </bold>The positive screening rate of emotional distress (SRQ ≥ 8) was 37.6 and 15.4% at one and 7 years, respectively. Emotional distress scores declined over time (p < 0.001). Earthquake exposure and ProQOL predicted one-year (ps < 0.05) but not seven-year emotional distress, whereas burnout predicted both one-year (p = 0.018) and seven-year (p = 0.047) emotional distress.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Although emotional distress can recover over time, it persists even 7 years later. Actions to reduce burnout during the early stage of post-disaster rescue have long-term benefits to staff's psychological outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14712458
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- BMC Public Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 149732200
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10726-8