Persistent mental and physical health impact of exposure to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks

Jordan, Hannah T.; Osahan, Sukhminder; Li, Jiehui; Stein, Cheryl R.; Friedman, Stephen M.; Brackbill, Robert M.; Cone, James E.; Gwynn, Charon; Mok, Ho Ki; Farfel, Mark R.

doi:10.1186/s12940-019-0449-7

Environmental Health

Table 2 Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among adult World Trade Center Health Registry enrollees in 2015–16

From: Persistent mental and physical health impact of exposure to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks

	PTSD			Depression
	Adult Wave 4 participants without pre-9/11 PTSD diagnosis ^a	PTSD ^b at follow-up (2015–2016)		Adult Wave 4 participants without pre-9/11 depression diagnosis ^d	Depression ^e at follow-up (2015–2016)
Characteristic	N	N	% (age adjusted) ^c	N	N	% (age adjusted)^c
Overall	34,211	4762	14.3 (13.1)	33,111	4709	15.3 (14.5)
Sex
Male	21,214	2952	14.3	20,713	2959	15.2
Female	12,997	1810	14.4	12,398	1750	15.4
Age on 9/11
18–24	1689	177	10.8	1645	211	13.5
25–44	17,920	2781	16.0	17,521	2759	16.8
45–64	13,735	1731	13.0	13,115	1653	13.6
65+	867	73	9.1	830	86	12.2
Race/ethnicity
White	23,917	2813	12.0	22,959	2910	13.5
Black or African American	3351	556	17.2	3328	518	17.2
Hispanic or Latino	3882	889	23.8	3809	790	22.7
Asian	1901	280	15.8	1879	282	16.8
Other	1160	224	20.3	1136	209	20.7
Education (at Wave 1)
Less than high school	7188	1466	21.3	7091	1380	21.4
At least some college	8434	1402	17.1	8277	1329	17.2
College or higher	18,321	1847	10.4	17,479	1956	11.9
Income (at Wave 1)
Less than $25,000	2493	614	26.1	2341	518	25.1
$25,000 - $74,999	12,773	2111	17.1	12,361	2065	18.1
$75,000 - $150,000	11,786	1365	11.8	11,483	1440	13.3
$150,000 or more	3845	328	8.7	3716	338	9.6
Smoking status (at Wave 1)
Never	19,547	2473	13.0	19,058	2408	13.6
Former	9724	1255	13.3	9269	1268	14.7
Current	4724	1002	21.9	4571	1002	23.7
Self identified
Yes	25,407	3791	15.4	24,655	3633	15.8
No	8804	971	11.4	8456	1076	13.8
Registry eligibility group
Rescue/recovery worker	16,424	2453	15.3	15,957	2436	16.3
Lower Manhattan area resident	4563	519	11.9	4243	544	14.2
Lower Manhattan area worker/student	11,701	1555	13.7	11,460	1481	13.9
Passerby	1311	200	15.7	1239	209	18.2
Dust cloud exposure
Yes	17,568	3033	17.8	17,136	2773	17.5
No	16,503	1707	10.6	15,838	1910	12.9
Personally witnessed trauma on 9/11
Yes	23,132	3643	16.3	22,533	3435	16.4
No	10,527	1034	10.1	10,053	1187	12.6
Rescue/recovery workers and volunteers
Duration of work
1–7 days	5589	713	13.1	5355	764	15.2
8–30 days	5035	723	14.7	4884	716	15.5
31–90 days	2732	422	15.9	2704	415	16.4
>90 days	2457	533	22.4	2420	469	21.0
Date of arrival for rescue/recovery work
9/11 on pile	2471	467	19.3	2470	377	16.2
9/11, other site	2269	406	18.5	2236	387	18.7
9/12–9/17	6496	1081	17.1	6362	1078	18.2
9/18 or later	4581	441	9.9	4304	525	13.0

^aSelf-reported PTSD diagnosed by a clinician in 2001 or earlier, as reported on the 2015–16 Wave 4 questionnaire
^bDefined as a score > 44 on the 17-item, event-specific PTSD Checklist on the 2015–16 Wave 4 questionnaire
^cAge adjusted to the 2010 United States Census
^dSelf-reported depression diagnosed by a clinician in 2001 or earlier, as reported on the 2015–16 Wave 4 questionnaire
^eDefined as a score > 10 on the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire on the 2015–16 Wave 4 questionnaire

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ISSN: 1476-069X

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