War-related trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder prevalence among Syrian university students

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants

Variable		N	%	Variable		N	%
Gender	Male	274	32.9	Internal displacement	No	178	21.4
	Female	559	67.1		Yes	655	78.6
Current academic year	1	137	16.4	Number of times internally displaced	1	141	16.9
	2	169	20.3		2	127	15.2
	3	218	26.2		3	185	22.2
	4	250	30.0		4	142	17
	5	59	7.1		5	81	9.7
Age in groups	<22 years	369	41.8		>5	157	18.8
	22–25 years	461	52.3	Students fields of education	Medical	264	29.89
	≥25 years	53	6.0		Engineering	301	34.04
Smoking status	No	603	72.4		Humanities	318	36.01
	Cigarettes	194	23.3	Number of failing courses	0	8	1
	Bubbly	36	4.3		1	47	5.6
	Total	833	100.0		2	84	10.1
Economic Status	Poor^a	159	19.1		3	80	9.6
	Fair^b	473	56.8		4	69	8.3
	Good^c	169	20.3		5	72	8.6
	Excellent^d	32	3.8		6	46	5.5
GPA^e	> 50	261	31.3		7	42	5
	> 60	264	31.7		8	63	7.6
	> 70	216	25.9		9	50	6
	> 80	62	7.4		10	54	6.5
	> 90	30	3.6		> 10	218	26.2
Number of failing years	0	30	6.7		Total	833	100.0
	1	246	29.5	Crisis effect on GPA	None	30	3.6
	2	244	29.3		Minor	92	11
	3	159	19.1		Average	150	18
	4	71	8.5		Major	333	40
	5	57	6.8		Reason for failure	228	27.4

^aPoor: income does not provide essential needs of the family.

^bFair: income provides essential needs of the family but no more.

^cGood: income provides essential needs and some luxury.

^dExcellent: income provides luxury needs.

^e100 is the maximum given grade

Table 2. Sample distribution according to trauma exposure and PTSD diagnosis

PTSD presence	Number of exposed traumatic events	Frequency	%
No PTSD	0	113	18.9
	1	89	14.9
	2	88	14.7
	3	87	14.5
	4 and more	221	37
	Total	598	100.0
PTSD	1	19	8.1
	2	31	13.2
	3	34	14.5
	4 and more	151	64.3
	Total	235	100.0

Figure 1. Exposure to traumatic events and PTSD prevalence

Table 3. Types of trauma distribution among the students, and PTSD prevalence within each trauma subtype among the exposed group and total sample

Type of trauma	N(%)	PTSD prevalence (within exposed group) (%)	PTSD prevalence (within total sample) (%)
Had serious car/work accident	269(32.3)	37.9	12.2
Worked non-combat work in a war zone	230(27.6)	36.5	10.1
Witnessed violent natural or war related crisis	390(46.8)	33.8	15.8
Diagnosed with life-threatening illness	64(7.7)	35.9	2.8
Witnessed childhood trauma or violence	188(22.6)	42.6	9.6
Witnessed violence as adults	242(29.1)	42.6	12.4
Forced into sexual act	80(9.6)	46.3	4.4
Hurt by an accident or feared getting hurt or dying	372(44.7)	41.7	18.65
Experienced death of family member or close friend	443(53.2)	35.2	18.75
Witnessed an action in which someone was hurt badly	470(56.4)	37.7	21.2

Table 4. The relationship between stress levels and PTSD

Stress level * PTSD Cross tables						Chi-Square test
			PTSD Presence
			No PTSD	PTSD	Total	Chi-Square	p-value
Stress	Normal	Count	300	29	329	169.115	0.000*
		within Stress Strength(%)	91.2	8.8	100
		within PTSD(%)	50.2	12.3	39.5
		Total(%)	36.0	3.5	39.5
	Mild	Count	108	22	130
		within Stress Strength(%)	83.1	16.9	100
		within PTSD (%)	18.1	9.4	15.6
		Total(%)	13.0	2.6	15.6
	Moderate	Count	93	55	148
		within Stress Strength(%)	62.8	37.2	100
		within PTSD(%)	15.6	23.4	17.8
		Total(%)	11.2	6.6	17.8
	Severe	Count	65	79	144
		within Stress Strength(%)	45.1	54.9	100
		within PTSD(%)	10.9	33.6	17.3
		Total	7.8	9.5	17.3
	Extremely Severe	Count	32	50	82
		within Stress Strength(%)	39.0	61.0	100
		within PTSD(%)	5.4	21.3	9.8
		Total(%)	3.8	6.0	9.8
Total		Count	598	235	833
		within Stress Strength(%)	71.8	28.2	100
		within PTSD(%)	100.0	100.0	100
		Total	71.8	28.2	100

Table 5. Socio demographic variables and PTSD

Gender * PTSD Cross tabulation					Chi-Square test
		Gender
		Male	Female	Total	Chi-Square	p-value
PTSD	Not PTSD	171	373	544	0.013	0.486
	PTSD	72	154	226
Changing Residence * PTSD Cross tabulation					Chi-Square test
		Changing Residence		Total	Chi-Square	p-value
		No	Yes
PTSD	Not PTSD	138	460	598	3.682	0.032*
	PTSD	40	195	235
Smoking/bubbly * PTSD Cross tabulation					Chi-Square test
		PTSD		Total	Chi-Square	p-value
		Not PTSD	PTSD
Smoking/bubbly	No	440	163	603	1.6	0.452
	Yes	134	60	194
	Previous Smoker	24	12	36
Economic Statues * PTSD Cross tabulation					Chi-Square test
		PTSD		Total	Chi-Square	p-value
		Not PTSD	PTSD
Economic Statues	Bad	90	69	159	22.8	0.000*
	Median	353	120	473
	Good	130	39	169
	Excellent	25	7	32
Current Class * PTSD Cross tabulation					Chi-Square test
		PTSD		Total	Chi-Square	p-value
		Not PTSD	PTSD
Current Class	First Year	100	37	137	16.857	0.002*
	Second Year	117	52	169
	Third Year	177	41	218
	Fourth Year	169	81	250
	Fifth Year	35	24	59
No. Years Of Failure * PTSD Cross tabulation
		PTSD		Total	Chi-Square	p-value
		Not PTSD	PTSD
No. Years Of Failure	There isn’t	41	15	56	8.82	0.117
	1	178	68	246
	2	177	67	244
	3	114	45	159
	4	56	15	71
	5	32	25	57

Table 6. Binary logistic regression for variables associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms

Variable	B	p-value	OR	95% C.I.for OR
				Lower	Upper
Dependent Variable: PTSD vs No PTSD
Gender (Female vs male)	0.359	0.080	1.432	0.958	2.140
Smoking (No vs Yes)	−1.349	0.034*	0.259	0.075	0.900
Economic Status (Bad vs Excellent)	0.761	0.121	2.141	0.819	5.598
Economic Status (Moderate vs Excellent)	0.030	0.949	1.031	0.408	2.602
Economic Status (Good vs Excellent)	−0.001	0.998	0.999	0.377	2.650
Current Class		0.036*
Current Class (Second year vs fifth year)	−0.246	0.472	0.782	0.400	1.528
Current Class (Third year vs fifth year)	−0.820	0.019*	0.441	0.222	0.873
Current Class (Fourth year vs fifth year)	−0.132	0.689	0.876	0.459	1.672
Current Class (First year vs fifth year)	−0.319	0.382	0.727	0.356	1.485
Exposed traumatic events (0 vs 1,2,3,4 and more)	−20.315	0.996	0.000	0.000	0.000
failing years (0 vs 1,2,3,4,5)	0.004	0.990	1.004	0.491	2.056
Failing years		0.293
Failing years (2 vs1)	−0.103	0.638	0.902	0.586	1.388
Failing years (3 vs1)	−0.047	0.847	0.954	0.591	1.539
Failing years (4 vs1)	−0.353	0.307	0.703	0.357	1.382
Failing years (5 vs1)	0.559	0.110	1.749	0.882	3.470
Failing courses (0 vs 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,>10)	0.494	0.584	1.639	0.279	9.628
Changing Residence (Yes vs No)	0.341	0.115	1.407	0.920	2.151

Data availability statement

Data are available within the article or its supplementary materials.