Frequency of traumatic events, physical and psychological health among Maori

We examined the lifetime prevalence of 12 traumatic experiences (combat, child sex abuse, sexual abuse as an adult, family violence, other physical assault, theft by force, vehicle accident, other accident, natural disaster, disaster precautions, traumatic death (secondary trauma) and the links between these experiences and physical and mental health, via a cross sectional survey of 502 community dwelling New Zealand Maori adults. We found that the overall frequency with which such events occur in this group to be relatively high. Males were significantly more likely than females to report experience of combat, physical assault, theft by force, vehicle accident and other forms of accident. Females were significantly more likely to report sexual abuse as a child or adult, violence at the hands of a family member, and a traumatic death of a loved one. Younger respondents and those living in urban areas also reported more traumatic experiences of various sorts. There were some significant linkages between traumatic experiences and mental health (specifically PTSD, and the well-being scale of the MHI) but the size of the effects were small. We argue, that despite methodological limitations, these data are instructive about the frequency and impact of traumatic events among this group. ********** Over the past twenty years an extensive literature has emerged relating to the psychological impact on the individual from exposure to traumatic events--events which are outside the realm of everyday human experience such as violence, combat, and criminal victimization. This research has more recently been via community-based survey studies. Exposure to traumatic events may be more widespread than once thought with estimates ranging from 39% to 84% of individuals being exposed to at least one traumatic event in their lifetime (Breslau, Davis, Andreski & Petersen, 1991; Fairbank, Schlenger, Saigh & Davidson, 1995; Norris, 1992; Vrana & Lauterbach, 1994). Traumatic experiences are relatively common and are associated with negative health outcomes in a range of ethnically diverse populations (e.g. Holman, Silver & Waitzkin, 2000; Peltzer 1999). The present study documents prevalence of a range of traumatic experiences in a community sample of New Zealand Maori. The DSM-IV (1994) defines an extreme traumatic stressor as involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or witnessing of an actual or threatened death or serious injury (p. 424). Green (1990) suggested that there are certain generic experiences which make any event traumatic. These experiences, or dimensions, are: threat to one's life or bodily integrity; severe physical harm or injury; receipt of intentional injury or harm; exposure to the grotesque; violent and sudden loss of a loved one; witnessing or learning of violence to a loved one; learning of exposure to a noxious agent, and; causing death or severe harm to another. The present study will consider traumatic events defined by Green's criteria. The first large scale community study to consider exposure rates to traumatic events in a general population found that 39% had been exposed to at least one traumatic event in their lives, and of those, 24% had PTSD as defined by DSM-II-R (Breslau et al., 1991). Norris (1992) examined the frequency and impact of various traumatic events amongst a diverse group of North American respondents Jiving in the community. Participants lived in one of 12 neighbourhoods across four mid-sized south-eastern US cities and were sampled such that there was equal racial (50% African American, 50% European American), gender (50% male, 50% female) and age (33% young--18-39 years, 33% middle-aged--40-59 years, and 33% older--60+ years) representation. Nine different types of traumatic events were investigated; robbery, physical assault, sexual assault, tragic death, motor vehicle crash, combat, fire, other disaster (including injury or property damage because of a natural or man-made disaster) and other hazard (e. …