Cited by 102Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchCOVID-19 and Mental HealthDisaster Management and Resilience

The Association between Disaster Exposure and Media Use on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Following Typhoon Hato in Macao, China

Open access
Hall, Brian J., Xiong, Ying Xin, Yip, Paul S. Y., Lao, Chao Kei, Shi, Wei, Sou, Elvo K. L., Chang, Kay, Wang, Li +1 more·2019·European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Abstract

Background: Direct exposure to natural disasters and related losses are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is less clear whether indirect media exposure is associated with PTSD.Objective: This study investigated key exposure-related risk factors for PTSD and examined the effect of media exposure on the prevalence of disaster-related PTSD.Method: Typhoon Hato directly hit Macao on 23 August 2017. It was one of the most serious natural disasters ever to strike southern China. One month after the event, 1876 Chinese university students in Macao were recruited into a cross-sectional study (mean age 20.01 years, SD = 2.63; 66.2% female). Self-reported typhoon exposure, media use and exposure to disaster-related content, and PTSD symptoms were collected using an electronic survey. Univariable analyses assessed associations between risk factors and PTSD, which were then included in a series of multivariable logistic regressions.Results: The prevalence of PTSD was 5.1%. Adjusted models demonstrated that being male (vs female) [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–2.63], home damage (aOR = 2.86, 95% CI 1.71–4.78), witnessing people injured (aOR = 2.33, 95% CI 1.36–4.00), and almost drowning during the storm (aOR = 8.99, 95% CI 1.92–41.99) were associated with PTSD. After adjusting for direct exposure, indirect exposure to disaster-related social media content, including information related to drowning victims (aOR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.00–1.67) and residents’ emotional reactions (aOR = 1.98, 95% CI 1.44–2.72), was associated with PTSD. Viewing more information about the storm itself (aOR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.28–0.49) and images of heroic acts (aOR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.55–0.94) were significantly associated with lower odds of PTSD.Conclusion: These findings add to the literature demonstrating that some types of media use and certain media content following a natural disaster are associated with PTSD.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/20008198.2018.1558709

Cites

48 of 48 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A large body of previous research has established an association between media exposure and symptoms of posttraumatic stress related to various life-threatening stressors.

    “A large body of previous research has convincingly established the association between media exposure and symptoms of posttraumatic stress related to various life-threatening stressors, such as war conflicts [9,10], terrorism and other acts of mass violence [11-15], natural disasters [16,17], and recently also the COVID-19 pandemic”
  • In Macao, indirect exposure to disaster-related social media content following Typhoon Hato was linked to PTSD among university students.

    “In Hong Kong, frequent exposure to distressing tsunami-related news was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms, while in Macao, indirect exposure to disaster-related social media content following Typhoon Hato was linked to PTSD among university students.”
  • In Hong Kong, frequent exposure to distressing tsunami-related news was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms.

    “In Hong Kong, frequent exposure to distressing tsunami-related news was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms, while in Macao, indirect exposure to disaster-related social media content following Typhoon Hato was linked to PTSD among university students.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 51 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association..
  2. Shan C.-C. Past-Hato Report: Review, Follow-up and Improvement of the Disaster Response Mechanism for Macau. 3 2018

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hall, B. J., Xiong, Y. X., Yip, P. S. Y., Lao, C. K., Shi, W., Sou, E. K. L., Chang, K., Wang, L., & Lam, A. I. F.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Global and Community Mental Health Research Group, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Macao, Macao (SAR), People’s Republic of China
  • University of Macau (MO)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Corresponding author
Hall, Brian J.
Venue
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Published
2019-01-14
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
1558709-1558709
ISSN
2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2910901184
Cited by
102
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 4
FWCI
14.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
Funders
Macao Government RSKTO (MYRG-2015-111)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
Keywords
post-traumatic stress disorder, Typhoon Hato, disaster exposure, media exposure, social media, natural disasters, university students, housing damage, drowning, risk factors, gender differences, Macau, psychological resilience, disaster recovery, disaster narratives, disaster imagery

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review