Prevalence of PTSD and Depression among Junior Middle School Students in a Rural Town Far from the Epicenter of the Wenchuan Earthquake in China

Context: On May12th 2008, a devastating earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, struck Wenchuan county and surrounding areas in China. The prevalence of mental illness among children and adolescents in a rural town far from the earthquake epicenter is unknown. Objective: To assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among junior middle school students in a rural town Ningqiang county, 327 km from the earthquake epicenter. Design, Setting, and Participants: A population-based mental health survey was conducted in March, 2009. Main Outcome Measure: Survey Self-designed General Condition Survey Scale, Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), and the Depression Self-rating Scale for Children (DSRSC) were used to sample 1,841 junior middle school students in Ningqiang county, ten months after the Wenchuan earthquake. Results: The prevalence rate of a high-risk for PTSD was 28.4%, with 32.7 % among females, 23.8 % among males (female vs. male, p,0.001), 38.6 % in the severe exposure group and 24.3 % in the mild exposure group (severe vs. mild exposure, p,0.001). For depressive symptoms, the overall prevalence was 19.5%, with 24.0 % among females, 14.7 % among males, 24.5 % in the severe exposure group and 17.5 % in the mild exposure group (female vs. male, p,0.001; severe vs. mild exposure, p,0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, factors such as ‘‘having felt despair’’, or ‘‘danger’ ’ and ‘‘having ow