Trajectories of Scores on a Screening Instrument for PTSD Among World Trade Center Rescue, Recovery, and Clean‐Up Workers. Issue 3 (19th May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Maslow, Carey B.; Caramanica, Kimberly; Welch, Alice E.; Stellman, Steven D.; Brackbill, Robert M.; Farfel, Mark R.
• Is Part Of: Journal of traumatic stress. Volume 28:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 198
• Page End: 205
• Publication Date: 2015-05-19
• Subjects: Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Periodicals; 616.8521
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.22011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0894-9867

Abstract

Abstract: The longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over 8–9 years was examined among 16, 488 rescue and recovery workers who responded to the events of September 11, 2001 (9/11) at the World Trade Center (WTC; New York, NY), and were enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. Latent class growth analysis identified 5 groups of rescue and recovery workers with similar score trajectories at 3 administrations of the PTSD Checklist (PCL): low‐stable (53.3%), moderate‐ stable (28.7%), moderate‐increasing (6.4%), high‐decreasing (7.7%), and high‐stable (4.0%). Relative to the low‐stable group, membership in higher risk groups was associated with 9/11‐related exposures including duration of WTC work, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.3 to 2.0, witnessing of horrific events (range = 1.3 to 2.1), being injured (range = 1.4 to 2.3), perceiving threat to life or safety (range = 2.2 to 5.2), bereavement (range = 1.6 to 4.8), and job loss due to 9/11 (range = 2.4 to 15.8). Within groups, higher PCL scores were associated with adverse social circumstances including lower social support, with B coefficients ranging from 0.2 to 0.6, divorce, separation, or widowhood (range = 0.4–0.7), and unemployment (range = 0.4–0.5). Given baseline, exposure‐related, and contextual influences that affect divergent PTSD trajectories, screening for both PTSD and adverse circumstances should occur immediately, and at regular intervals postdisaster.