The mental health status of Mayan refugees after repatriation to Guatemala

Objective. Only one previous study had examined the epidemiology of mental health in Guatemalan refugees. The objective of this new study was to estimate the prevalence of men-tal illness and to assess factors associated with poor mental health among Guatemalan Mayan refugees who had been repatriated to Guatemala after spending 12–18 years in refugee camps in Mexico, and to compare the results for the repatriated Guatemalans with those for Guate-malan refugees who were continuing to live in Mexico. Methods. In 2001 a cross-sectional survey of adults ( ≥ 16 years) was conducted with ran-dom household sampling proportional to the population size in each of the five repatriation vil-lages surveyed. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression were measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. Results. Together, the five repatriation villages had 565 households. Of the 565 households, 203 of them were approached to solicit study participation. A total of 179 households (one adult per household) agreed to participate, representing an overall participation rate of 88%, and one-third of all the households in the five communities. The respondents had personally experienced a mean of 5.5 trauma events and had witnessed a mean of 7.3 other trauma events