![]() ![]() The present study reports on the prevalence of trauma exposure and risk of PTSD associated with potentially traumatic events (PTEs) in the South African Stress and Health Survey (SASH), the first nationally representative study of mental disorders in Africa. After apartheid, high levels of often criminal interpersonal violence continued, fuelled by rapid urbanization and ongoing socioeconomic disparities, that resulted in a high level of trauma exposure, over 80% in some studies. This transition was achieved by a protracted liberation struggle, characterized by political violence and state-sponsored oppression. South Africa is a developing country with a history characterised by past constitutional racial segregation and exploitation in the form of apartheid that gave way to a non-racial democracy only in 1994. The dominant role of witnessing in contributing to PTSD may reflect the public settings of trauma exposure in South Africa and highlight the importance of political and social context in shaping the epidemiology of PTSD. ![]() The occurrence of trauma and PTSD in South Africa is not distributed according to the socio-demographic factors or trauma types observed in other countries. Socio-demographic factors such as sex, age and education were largely unrelated to PTSD risk. ![]() PTSD conditional risk after trauma exposure and probability of chronicity after PTSD onset were both highest for witnessing trauma. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates of PTSD were 2.3% and 0.7% respectively, while the conditional prevalence of PTSD after trauma exposure was 3.5%. The most common traumatic events were the unexpected death of a loved one and witnessing trauma occurring to others. The South African Stress and Health Study is a nationally representative survey of South African adults using the WHO’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to assess exposure to trauma and presence of DSM-IV mental disorders. The aim of this study was to document the epidemiology of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the South African general population. South Africa’s unique history, characterised by apartheid, a form of constitutional racial segregation and exploitation, and a long period of political violence and state-sponsored oppression ending only in 1994, suggests a high level of trauma exposure in the general population. ![]()
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