OBJECTIVES The disaster of the Sewol ferry that sank at sea off Korea’s southern coast of the Yellow Sea on April 16, 2014 was a tragedy that brought grief and despair to the whole country. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mental health effects of this disaster on the community of Ansan, where most victims and survivors resided.
METHODS
The self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted 4 to 6 months after the accident using the Korean Community Health Survey system, an annual nationwide cross-sectional survey. Subjects were 7,076 adults (≥19 years) living in two victimized communities in Ansan, four control communities from Gyeonggi-do, Jindo and Haenam near the accident site. Depression, stress, somatic symptoms, anxiety, and suicidal ideation were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument, Patient Health Questionnaire-15, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale, respectively.
RESULTS
The depression rate among the respondents from Ansan was 11.8%, and 18.4% reported suicidal ideation. Prevalence of other psychiatric disturbances was also higher compared with the other areas. A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed significantly higher odds ratios (ORs) in depression (1.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36 to 2.04), stress (1.37; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.71), somatic symptoms (1.31; 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.58), anxiety (1.82; 95% CI, 1.39 to 2.39), and suicidal ideation (1.33; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.56) compared with Gyeonggi-do. In contrast, the accident areas of Jindo and Haenam showed the lowest prevalence and ORs.
CONCLUSIONS
Residents in the victimized area of Ansan had a significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric disturbances than in the control communities.
Summary
Korean summary
본 연구는 2014년 4월 16일 발생한 세월호 침몰 사고가 지역사회의 정신건강 수준에 미친 영향을 평가하기 위해 실시하였다. 2014년 지역사회건강조사를 활용, 사고 후 6개월 시점에 조사를 시행하였다. 대부분의 희생자가 발생한 안산시 대상자의 11.8%가 우울군으로 분류되었으며, 18.4%가 자살생각을 호소하였고, 그 밖의 유병률도 대조 지역에 비해 높았다.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Do community-related traumatic events affect academic outcomes among adolescents? Quasi-experimental evidence from the Sewol disaster in South Korea Dirk Bethmann, Jae Il Cho Death Studies.2024; : 1. CrossRef
Suicide Death Rate after Disasters: A Meta-Analysis Study Hamid Safarpour, Sanaz Sohrabizadeh, Leila Malekyan, Meysam Safi-Keykaleh, Davoud Pirani, Salman Daliri, Jafar Bazyar Archives of Suicide Research.2022; 26(1): 14. CrossRef
Disaster Resilience Differs between Survivors and Victims’ Families: A Semantic Network Analysis Jae-Eun Lee, Seol-A Kwon, Eugene Song, Sang Il Ryu Social Sciences.2022; 11(3): 117. CrossRef
Development of a Mental Health Application: A Formative Evaluation Moon-Heum Cho, Yunjeong Chang, Dong Hun Lee, Yejin Kim Sage Open.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Changes in the Levels of Stress Perception, Experiencing Depressive Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life of Residents after the 2016 Gyeongju Earthquake Young Ran Han, Yeo Won Jeong, Sang Kyu Kim, Han Seok Jeong International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2021; 18(2): 540. CrossRef
Psychological outcomes for young adults after disastrous events: A mixed-methods scoping review Katelyn O'Donohue, Emily Berger, Louise McLean, Matthew Carroll Social Science & Medicine.2021; 276: 113851. CrossRef
Exploring the factors associated with indirect trauma caused by a human-made disaster on the general population: A community study five years after the Sewol ferry incident Jongha Lee, Seung-Hoon Lee, Cheolmin Shin, Ho-Kyoung Yoon, Ha Eun Park, Eun Bee Cho, Hae Sun Jung, Young-Hoon Ko International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.2021; 60: 102262. CrossRef
Developing an Internet-Based Trauma Recovery Nursing Intervention Based on Swanson’s Theory of Caring for Trauma Recovery Sunah Kim, Go-Un Kim, Wongyeong Lee, Jinyoung Park International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2021; 18(13): 6715. CrossRef
Trends and Factors Associated with Oral Contraceptive Use among Korean Women Hyejin Park, Kisok Kim Healthcare.2021; 9(10): 1386. CrossRef
Life Experience of Bereaved Parents After the 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea Dong Hun Lee, Minsoo Khang, Jiyoung Shin, Hwa Jung Lee, Jacqueline A. Brown OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying.2020; 80(4): 515. CrossRef
The Impact of Community Disaster Trauma: A Focus on Emerging Research of PTSD and Other Mental Health Outcomes Ju-Yeon Lee, Sung-Wan Kim, Jae-Min Kim Chonnam Medical Journal.2020; 56(2): 99. CrossRef
Machine Learning-Based Data Mining Method for Sentiment Analysis of the Sewol Ferry Disaster's Effect on Social Stress Min-Joon Lee, Tae-Ro Lee, Seo-Joon Lee, Jin-Soo Jang, Eung Ju Kim Frontiers in Psychiatry.2020;[Epub] CrossRef
Development of Korean Disaster Mental Health Support Guidelines: Results of a Scoping Review and a Delphi Survey Sang Min Lee, Hee Young Lee, Mi Kyung Lee, Sunju Kim, Sorae Lee, Hae-Woo Lee, Eun Jin Park, Minyoung Sim, Jong-Woo Paik Psychiatry Investigation.2019; 16(2): 130. CrossRef
Seasonal changes in suicide in South Korea, 1991 to 2015 Chi Ting Yang, Paul S. F. Yip, Eun Shil Cha, Yi Zhang, Ghobad Moradi PLOS ONE.2019; 14(6): e0219048. CrossRef
A Retrospective and Prospective Follow-up Study of Psychological Distress in the Danwon High School Survivors of the Sewol Ferry Disaster Eun Ji Kim, Hee Sun Nam, Hak Beom Kim, Unsun Chung, So Hee Lee, Jeong-Ho Chae Psychiatry Investigation.2018; 15(3): 261. CrossRef
Factors Associated with Complicated Grief in Students Who Survived the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea So Hee Lee, Hee Sun Nam, Hak Beom Kim, Eun Ji Kim, Jin-Won Noh, Jeong-Ho Chae Psychiatry Investigation.2018; 15(3): 254. CrossRef
Natural Course of Posttraumatic Symptoms in Late-Adolescent Maritime Disaster Survivors: Results of A 12-Month Follow-Up Study Sang Won Jeon, Ho-Kyoung Yoon, Yong-Ku Kim, Changsu Han, Young-Hoon Ko, Seo Young Yoon, Cheolmin Shin Psychiatry Investigation.2018; 15(6): 574. CrossRef
Decision Making Regarding Key Elements of Korean Disaster Psychiatric Assistance Teams Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process Sun-Jin Jo, Kyoung-Sae Na, Joo Eon Park, Myung-Soo Lee Psychiatry Investigation.2018; 15(7): 663. CrossRef
Changes in the levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety in Ansan city after the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster Hee Jung Yang, Gawon Kim, KangUk Lee, Jakyoung Lee, Hae Kwan Cheong, Bo Youl Choi, Soon Young Lee Journal of Affective Disorders.2018; 241: 110. CrossRef
Increase in the prescription rate of antidepressants after the Sewol Ferry disaster in Ansan, South Korea Kyu-Man Han, Kyoung-Hoon Kim, Mikyung Lee, Sang-Min Lee, Young-Hoon Ko, Jong-Woo Paik Journal of Affective Disorders.2017; 219: 31. CrossRef
Mental health status of people isolated due to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Hyunsuk Jeong, Hyeon Woo Yim, Yeong-Jun Song, Moran Ki, Jung-Ah Min, Juhee Cho, Jeong-Ho Chae Epidemiology and Health.2016; 38: e2016048. CrossRef