Epidemiological Studies on the Relationship between PTSD Symptoms and Circadian Typology and Mental/Sleep Health of Young People Who Suffered a Natural Disaster, Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

摘要

This study aims, first, to determine the relationship between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and current circadian typology and sleep habits of adults who experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in their childhood in January 1995. An integrated questionnaire was administered to 275 university students (females: 173, males: 93, unknown: 9) aged 19 - 37 (mean age: 21.9 years) in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The questionnaire consisted of basic questions about attributes, questions on sleep habits and sleep quality (Monroe’s sleep quality index), the Torsvall-?kerstedt Diurnal Type Scale and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) to obtain PTSD scores. Participants who scored 25 or more in the IES-R were placed in a high-traumatic group (HTG) and those who scored less than 25 were placed in a low-traumatic group (LTG). HTG participants exhibited significantly worse sleep quality than LTG participants (p 0.05), HTG participants woke more frequently during sleep (p