title: Ageing and psychological response during the post-SARS period.
abstract: We studied the psychological impact of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to understand if age and residential location were risk factors associated with post-traumatic disturbance, namely intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. One hundred and forty-six volunteers belonging to four groups classified along the dimensions of age (middle-aged versus older-aged) and location (high SARS-prevalent regions versus low SARS-prevalent regions), participated in this study. After controlling for depression, residents in high SARS-prevalent regions, regardless of age, consistently developed more intense post-traumatic disturbance than residents in low SARS-prevalent regions. Furthermore, the prevalence of probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases was significantly higher in older people and in residents of SARS-prevalent regions. Our findings suggest the importance of mental health aftercare in the post-epidemic period of disease epidemics.
authors.affiliation: Sau Po Centre on Ageing, The University of Hong Kong. tmclee@hkusua.hku.hk
authors.forename: T M C
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: L W M
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: K-L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Chou
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*