Mental health screening in refugees communities: Ukrainian refugees and their post-traumatic stress disorder specificities

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms are often consequences of war conflicts that generate trauma in people, resulting from the loss of family, home and belonging. It is associated with the forced migration and lack of structured facilities or health professionals in the hosting country, as a result of varying degrees of clinical assessment and sociocultural intervention. To evaluate the lack of resources for refugees from Ukraine, as well for clinical and research purposes, this study examined the validity and psychometric properties of one Ukrainian adapted version of the PCL-5 (Check-List for PTSD) and the convergent validity for the four factor model of DSM-5 for PTSD. Varying reactions to war events and war zone characterization are among the variables expected to produce PTSD group differences in these refugees. Thus, PTSD was investigated in 77 Ukrainian refugees, who had resided in Portugal for a minimum of four weeks, and who answered the 20-item PCL-5 scored on a Likert scale. The PCL-5 revealed satisfactory convergent validity overall, and in the clusters of the four factor model, based on the DSM-5. Additionally, the role of the participants’ age, sex, education level, time of residence in the host country, and the average income before the russo-ukrainian war was evaluated. 34 of 77 met the criteria for PTSD with a good fit for the four factor model (as the original of DSM-5 for PTSD) after the Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) was conducted. Mediating factors found for PTSD: female, young adults, high-income in Ukraine, low level of education, married, solo migration. Further investigation into factor modeling and clinical practice are discussed.