Post-traumatic stress disorder and its associated factors: a cross-sectional study among refugee children and adolescents living in a Ugandan refugee settlement

Objective: The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its risk factors among adult refugees in the context of war-related forced migration is well established. However, reliable data are lacking on war-related trauma among refugee children and adolescents residing in refugee settlements. This study estimated the magnitude of PTSD and its associated factors among children and adolescents in Nakivale refugee settlement, south-western Uganda.Method: We conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study among 325 adolescent (10-19-year-old) refugees, who were selected using a simple random sampling approach. The presence of PTSD was assessed by the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents. The main predictor variables were assessed by structured checklists for war trauma and post-migration using Kobol collect software. Data were exported to Stata 23 for analysis. The prevalence of PTSD was computed using descriptive statistics. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine factors associated with PTSD.Results: The prevalence of PTSD in our study was 83% (269/325, 95% CI 0.782-0.867). Factors associated with PTSD included post-migration difficulties (OR = 4.11, 95% CI 2.52-8.43, p < .001) and exposure to war-related trauma (OR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.16-4.261, p = .016).Conclusion: The high prevalence of PTSD in our sample of refugee children and adolescents is associated with both war trauma and post-migration difficulties. This information is important for the psychological assessment and treatment of the children and adolescents living in the refugee settlement. Identification of potentially modifiable factors in post-migration conditions and acknowledgement of the effects of conflicts on health are of high priority from both societal and global perspectives.