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Prevalence in rescue teams

What is prevalence of PTSD in rescue teams?

Prevalence represents the overall proportion of individuals in a population who have the disorder of interest. It is different from incidence, which represents only the new cases that have developed over a particular time period. Point prevalence is the proportion of individuals in a population who have the disorder at a given point in time (e.g., at one-month post-trauma), while period prevalence is the proportion of individuals in a population who have the disorder over specific time periods (e.g., one to two months post-trauma). Lifetime prevalence is the proportion of individuals in a population who have ever had the disorder and lifetime morbid risk also includes those who had the disorder but were deceased at the time of the survey.

What is the evidence for the prevalence of PTSD in rescue teams?

Moderate to high quality evidence found the overall prevalence of PTSD in rescue workers was around 10%. Estimates were highest in Asian samples and in ambulance personnel.

Moderate quality evidence found the prevalence of PTSD in rescue workers exposed to the New York World Trade Centre terrorist attack was between 12.1% by 2-3 years after the attack and 19.5% by 5-6 years after the attack. By 6-9 years after the attack, prevalence of PTSD remained high at 17.8%.

August 2021

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Last updated at: 3:24 am, 8th October 2021
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Fact Sheet Technical Commentary

NeuRA Libraries

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