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War trauma and PTSD in Ukraine’s civilian population: comparing urban-dwelling to internally displaced persons

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Abstract

Introduction

War in Ukraine started in March 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and continues today in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Over 1.5 million people in these regions have been displaced from their homes. We conducted this study 36 months after the conflict began and interviewed civilians residing in Ukraine.

Purpose

This study examines the prevalence of exposure to war trauma, rates of PTSD by symptom clusters, and whether socio-demographic factors are associated with positive scores for PTSD among civilian urban-dwelling and internally displaced persons in Ukraine during the ongoing conflict in its Donbass region.

Methods

Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a multi-stage random sample of the general population in two large cities (Kharkiv and Lviv) in Ukraine (n = 1247) and a purposive sample of internally displaced persons (n = 300), half living in each city. Exposure to trauma, symptom clusters for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and overall PTSD were assessed.

Results

We found widespread direct exposure to conflict-related traumatic events (65%) among internally displaced people (IDPs) compared to a sizable minority (23%) of urban-dwelling people (UDPs). We found elevated prevalence of PTSD symptoms that were also uniformly spread within several socio-demographic factors. There were, however, significant differences in PTSD between (1) IDPs compared to UDPs and (2) those UDPs with Ukrainian compared to Russian ethnic identity, the former of each pair showing increased likelihoods of positive PTSD scores.

Conclusions

Ukraine’s adult civilians, enduring the prolonged engagement in war with Russia and Russian separatists, have elevated rates of PTSD. Moreover, those who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict (IDPs) have significantly higher levels of PTSD compared to UDPs.

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Availability of data and material

Data sharing is restricted under the IRB protocol for protection of human subjects. Authors are committed to complying with the American Sociological Association’s ethical standards of data sharing consistent with that protocol.

Code availability

NA.

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Funding

Research support was provided by intramural funding awards to the first three authors from their universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Robert J. Johnson & Olena Antonaccio

  2. Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Ekaterina Botchkovar

  3. STAR-Stress, Anxiety, and Resilience Consultants, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Stevan E. Hobfoll

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  1. Robert J. Johnson
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  2. Olena Antonaccio
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  3. Ekaterina Botchkovar
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  4. Stevan E. Hobfoll
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Contributions

The first three authors made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, and all authors made contributions to the interpretation of the data, drafted the work, or revised it critically for important intellectual content. All authors made comments and gave approval for publication. We agree to be accountable for aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Correspondence to Robert J. Johnson.

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Johnson, R.J., Antonaccio, O., Botchkovar, E. et al. War trauma and PTSD in Ukraine’s civilian population: comparing urban-dwelling to internally displaced persons. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 57, 1807–1816 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-021-02176-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-021-02176-9

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