Risk Factors for Duty-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Police Officers in the Mt. Ontake Eruption Disaster-Support Task Force

Tomoko Kamijo, Teruomi Tsukahara, Akihito Shimazu and Tetsuo Nomiyama
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Tomoko Kamijo: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano 390-8621, Japan
Teruomi Tsukahara: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano 390-8621, Japan
Akihito Shimazu: Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, 5322 Endo, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa 252-0882, Japan
Tetsuo Nomiyama: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano 390-8621, Japan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Mount Ontake in Nagano Prefecture, Japan erupted on 27 September 2014. Many police officers were called in for duty as a disaster-support task force. We investigated the association between the peritraumatic situation and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in these police officers. In January 2015, a health survey (OHS) on disaster stress related to the Mt. Ontake eruption disaster support work was distributed to all of the police officers and staff involved in the disaster support. We analyzed the 213 participants who had PTSD symptoms following the eruption and no missing OHS data. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to clarify the relationship between the participants’ symptom severity and their peritraumatic situation (i.e., stressors and daily support prior to the eruption, disaster-support work duties, and postdisaster stress relief). The symptom severity was associated with ‘more than seven cumulative days at work’ (odds ratio [OR] = 2.47, 1.21–5.06), ‘selecting drinking and/or smoking as stress relief after disaster-support work’ (OR = 2.35, 1.09–5.04), and ‘female’ (OR = 3.58, 1.19–10.77). As disaster-support work, ‘supporting the victims’ families’ (OR = 1.99, 0.95–4.21) tended to be associated with symptom severity. The number of days of disaster-support work, stress-relief behavior, and gender were associated with the severity of PTSD symptoms.

Keywords: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); PTSD symptoms among police officers; peritraumatic situation; volcanic disaster (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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