Differences in changes in health-related anxiety between Western and non-Western participants in a trauma-focused study.

Disaster victims from ethnic minorities manifest more health complaints and concerns than others following a medical investigation. The authors aimed at analyzing ethnicity as a proxy for risk factors predictive of changes in health-related anxiety, and mediators that explain ethnic group differences after participating in a medical investigation. Western (n = 406) and non-Western participants (n = 379) were assessed at baseline and 12-week follow-up.

Offering a medical examination following disaster exposure does not result in long-lasting reassurance about health complaints.

Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that large-scale provision of individual medical examination will reduce persistent anxiety about health and subjective health complaints after involvement in an aviation disaster with alleged exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Method: Three measurements were performed: during the medical examination, 6 weeks later during consultation with the physician and 12 weeks after the first examination. Rescue workers (n=1736) and residents (n=339) involved in the disaster participated.

Participation in a trauma-focused epidemiological investigation may result in sensitization for current health problems.

Objectives: Participation in health survey research may result in a worsening of self-assessed health status and enhanced service-use by increasing self-awareness of current health status. The present study investigated whether participation in a trauma-focused epidemiological study sensitized participants for health problems irrespective of trauma exposure.

Methods: A total of 1,019 rescue workers and 453 residents involved in varying degrees in a large scale aviation disaster participated.

Making a bad thing worse: effects of communication of results of an epidemiological study after an aviation disaster.

Cognitions attributing health complaints to disaster exposure are associated with more severe health complaints and are therefore a promising target for interventions. Little is known about the best strategy to modify such cognitions following exposure to a technological disaster at the community level. In 1992, a Boeing 747 crashed in a residential area in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Associations among homesickness, anger, anxiety, and depression.

The study investigated the association of homesickness with the related concepts of anxiety, depression, and anger. Two conceptualizations of homesickness were used, one considering homesickness as a state, characterized by severe symptoms of a depressive episode, and the other one as a self-reported tendency to experience homesickness in times of separation from the familiar environment. The latter conceptualization can rather be considered as an enduring trait and does not specifically refer to actual feelings of depression.