title: Association between social support and recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder after flood: a 13-14 year follow-up study in Hunan, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most prevalent long-term psychiatric disorders among survivors of traumatic events. It is well established that social support has been related to the onset of PTSD after natural disasters. However, very little is known whether or not social support has had an influence on the recovery from the PTSD that was diagnosed after floods. This study, therefore, made a follow-up assessment of PTSD in flood victims 13-14 years after they were diagnosed with PTSD in 2000 to measure the prevalence rate of PTSD among them and identify the association between social support and their recovery from PTSD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Victims who had experienced Dongting Lake flood in 1998 and had been diagnosed as having PTSD in 2000 were enrolled in this study. A follow-up survey was done between the years 2013 and 2014 to diagnose the victims again of PTSD using the DSM-IV criteria. Social support and its three dimensions were measured using the Chinese version of Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), including objective support, subjective support and support utilization. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between social support and the recovery from PTSD after flood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 321 subjects with prior PTSD, 51 (15.89%) were diagnosed as still having PTSD. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the recovery from prior PTSD was significantly associated with social support (odds ratio (OR) =0.202, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.047-0.878), subjective support (OR = 0.236, 95% CI: 0.080-0.694) and support utilization (OR = 0.245, 95% CI: 0.071-0.844).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence rate of current PTSD indicates that natural disasters, such as floods, may affect the mental health of victims for a long time. Social support was significantly associated with the recovery from prior PTSD, especially subjective support and support utilization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. m18673965791@163.com.
authors.forename: Wenjie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. 84617341@qq.com.|Zhuhai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangdong, China. 84617341@qq.com.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. tanhz99@qq.com.
authors.forename: Hongzhuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. jieru.wang@chp.edu.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA. jieru.wang@chp.edu.
authors.forename: Jieru
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. 1295526151@qq.com.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. atipatsachiwanda@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: Atipatsa C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kaminga
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. 414962799@qq.com.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, China. lazroy@live.cn.
authors.forename: Aizhong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D055868:Floods; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data