Investigation of relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and quality of life among firefighters in Birjand City at 2018

Abstract

Introduction: Firefighters are at high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and that Quality of Life (QoL) is seriously compromised in individuals who have PTSD. This study was designed to assess the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorders and quality of life among firefighters.

Materials and Methods: In this analytical and cross-sectional study, all firefighters in Birjand city were selected by census method (N = 96) in 2018. PTSD and QoL status was assessed by the Persian version of the Mississippi (Eshel) and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires, respectively. Using Cronbach's α, the Iranian version of these two scales' internal reliability has been reported to be 0.92 and more than 0.7, respectively. Data analysis using SPSS software version 21 and independent T-test, ANOVA, Tukey's test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis.

Results: The results showed that most firefighters (70.5%) were suffered from moderate PTSD symptoms (79.2± 11.7). Based on the self-report scale, 53.7% of the firefighters rated their quality of life as Good, and 43.2% of the firefighters were satisfied with their health. Statistical analysis showed that there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between PTSD score and areas of mental health (P = 0.03), social relations (P = 0.002), and environmental health (P = 0.004). Between PTSD score and physical health, no statistically significant relationship was found (P = 0.08).

Conclusion: This study has proven a high rate of PTSD among firefighters and its negative correlation with the quality of their life. However, most firefighters rated their health and quality of life as good. Implementing strategies to combat mental disorders among firefighters improves the quality of their life and increases their job productivity.