Aims: The Syrian conflict has generated a large flow of refugees, more than one million of them located in Lebanon. Very few studies were conducted on mental health of Syrian refugees. The objective of this study was to examine post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and to determine the associated risk factors in a sample of Syrian refugees living in North Lebanon. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted, during February and March 2016, on a random sample of 450 (84.67% women and 15.33% men) Syrian refugees, aged between 14 and 45 years, living in North Lebanon. Each participant was interviewed individually using the Primary Care-PTSD (PC-PTSD) screening tool, translated into Arabic, with a back-translation to the original language to verify its accuracy. Reporting three or more PTSD symptoms was defined as a positive screen. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the prevalence of a positive PTSD screen and associations with socio-demographic and health-related characteristics. Results: The prevalence of positive PTSD screen in our sample of Syrian refugees was 47.3%. There were statistically significant associations between a positive PTSD screen and being a woman (P=0.011), married (P<0.001), older than 18 years (P=0.006), having chronic medical conditions (P<0.001) and reporting more than 2 stressful life events (P<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this survey are alarming, with high proportions of refugees at risk for PTSD. Early screening may help identify individuals who would benefit from interventions to improve mental health. © 2018, JMN Medical Education Ltd. All rights reserved.

Screening Post-traumatic stress disorder Middle-East Mental health War Refugees

refugee human life event screening test chronic disease Lebanon cross-sectional study married person male female observational study prevalence Article adult Syrian random sample posttraumatic stress disorder Primary Care Post Traumatic Stress Disorder anxiety assessment age distribution