Subjective quality of life in war-affected populations.

Background: Exposure to traumatic war events may lead to a reduction in quality of life for many years. Research suggests that these impairments may be associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms; however, wars also have a profound impact on social conditions. Systematic studies utilising subjective quality of life (SQOL) measures are particularly rare and research in post-conflict settings is scarce.

The utilization and perceived usefulness of health care and other support services by people exposed to traumatic events related to the war in the Balkans.

Objective: To explore which health care and other support services people exposed to traumatic events related to the war use, how helpful they perceive them in the course of their post-war adaptation and whether utilization and perceived usefulness depend on the mental health status of participants.

Methods: A community sample of 3304 adults exposed to at least one war-related traumatic event was randomly selected in different regions in the former Yugoslavia. A specifically designed instrument, the Matrix for the Assessment of Community and Healthcare Services, was used to record service utilization and their perceived usefulness.

Co-occurrence of major depressive episode and posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors of war: how is it different from either condition alone?

Objective: Major depressive episode (MDE) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been shown to be the most common mental disorders following traumatic war experiences and have been found to frequently co-occur. This study, designed as a randomized cross-sectional interview survey, aimed to identify whether the co-occurence of MDE and PTSD following exposure to war-related experiences is associated with different demographics, exposure to previous traumatic events, and clinical characteristics than either condition alone.

Method: After a random-walk technique was used to randomly select participants, face-to-face interviews were conducted among war-affected community samples in 5 Balkan countries (N = 3,313) in the years 2006 and 2007.

Psychological symptoms as long-term consequences of war experiences.

Background/aims: War experiences can affect mental health, but large-scale studies on the long-term impact are rare. We aimed to assess long-term mental health consequences of war in both people who stayed in the conflict area and refugees.

Method: On average 8 years after the war in former Yugoslavia, participants were recruited by probabilistic sampling in 5 Balkan countries and by registers and networking in 3 Western European countries.

Factors associated with mental disorders in long-settled war refugees: refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Germany, Italy and the UK.

Background: Prevalence rates of mental disorders are frequently increased in long-settled war refugees. However, substantial variation in prevalence rates across studies and countries remain unexplained.

Aims: To test whether the same sociodemographic characteristics, war experiences and post-migration stressors are associated with mental disorders in similar refugee groups resettled in different countries.

Long-term impact of war on healthcare costs: an eight-country study.

Objective: Exposure to war can negatively affect health and may impact on healthcare costs. Estimating these costs and identifying their predictors is important for appropriate service planning. We aimed to measure use of health services in an adult population who had experienced war in the former-Yugoslavia on average 8 years previously, and to identify characteristics associated with the use and costs of healthcare.

Experience of human rights violations and subsequent mental disorders - a study following the war in the Balkans.

War experiences are associated with substantially increased rates of mental disorders, particularly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depression (MD). There is limited evidence on what type of war experiences have particularly strong associations with subsequent mental disorders. Our objective was to investigate the association of violations of human rights, as indicated in the 4th Geneva Convention, and other stressful war experiences with rates of PTSD and MD and symptom levels of intrusion, avoidance and hyperarousal.

Mental disorders following war in the Balkans: a study in 5 countries.

Context: War experience may affect mental health. However, no community-based study has assessed mental disorders several years after war using consistent random sampling of war-affected people across several Western countries.

Objectives: To assess current prevalence rates of mental disorders in an adult population who were directly exposed to war in the Balkans and who still live in the area of conflict, and to identify factors associated with the occurrence of different types of mental disorders.

The structure of post-traumatic stress symptoms in survivors of war: confirmatory factor analyses of the Impact of Event Scale--revised.

The study aimed at establishing the factor structure of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) in survivors of war. A total sample of 4167 participants with potentially traumatic experiences during the war in Ex-Yugoslavia was split into three samples: two independent samples of people who stayed in the area of conflict and one sample of refugees to Western European countries. Alternative models with three, four, and five factors of post-traumatic symptoms were tested in one sample.