| Abstract |
Introduction: Nepal is prone to a number of natural hazards like floods, landslides, earthquake, fire, epidemics, including earthquakes. The Kathmandu valley is located in one of the most seismically active areas in the world. Earthquakes in 1934 and 1988 killed more than 8,500 and 721 people, respectively. Materials and methods: A community based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from 3rd May to 30th August using convenient sampling technique with a sample size of 300. A pre-tested structured questionnaire were used and data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science(SPSS) for windows version 18.0. Descriptive statistics was computed for demographic characteristics, trauma exposure indicator and prevalence rates of probable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Bivariate logistic regressions screened for the risk factors of probable PTSD, anxiety and depression by exploring the roles of the above independent variables, consecutively. Results: Among 300 respondents, most of the respondents were in the age group 15 -30 years i.e., 39.7%. Most (64%) of the respondent were female. Ten percent have lost their house, 7.3% have loss the property. More than sixty percent of the respondents have initial fear regarding the earthquake. Thirteen percentage of the respondents were having anxiety, 10% post traumatic stress disorder and 8% depression due to repetitive experience of earthquake. Conclusion :This study demonstrated that the mental impact of earthquake is more among the people living in our study population.
KEYWORDS: Anxiety, depression, earthquake, post traumatic stress disorder
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