Post-traumatic stress and secondary traumatic stress of earthquake-affected and non-affected healthcare workers after the 6th February Earthquake in Türkiye

Year 2025, Volume: 23 Issue: 1, 80 - 93, 25.04.2025

Ayşe Taş , Günseli Akpınar , Abdullah Yükseler , Mucahit Oruç , Osman Celbiş

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary traumatic stress in earthquake-affected healthcare workers (HCW) and non-affected deployed health workers.
Method: Healthcare professionals deployed to earthquake-affected areas from the provinces not affected by the earthquake were determined as the first group and healthcare personnel who have experienced the earthquake themselves were determined as the second group. Data was collected via a form to investigate sociodemographic information, occupational exposure, post-earthquake experience, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Self-Report Scale (PSS-SR), and Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). Mann-Withney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, and chi-square test were used to evaluate the analytical relationship.
Results: The median PSS-SR score of healthcare workers who were non experienced of the earthquake (14.0 (5.0-29.0)) was found to be lower than the median PSS-SR score (27.0 (16.0-34.0)) of healthcare workers who were affected by the earthquake (p<0.001). The median STSS score of healthcare workers who had non experienced the earthquake (30.0 (22.0-48.0)) was found to be lower than the median STSS score of the earthquake-affected healthcare workers (50.0 (38.0-58.0)) (p<0.001). The sleep patterns and nutrition patterns of the earthquake-affected healthcare personnel were more negatively affected than the non-affected healthcare personnel (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The PSS-SR and STSS scores were higher and sleep patterns and nutrition were affected more after the earthquake than those who were non-earthquake victims. For this reason, in health workforce planning, it would be appropriate to continue services by deployed healthcare workers instead of disaster-affected healthcare workers and to provide psychological support to earthquake-affected healthcare workers.

Keywords

Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Mental Health, Disasters, Earthquakes

Ethical Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Inonu University (Date: 19.07.2023, Meeting No: 2023/4831).

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