Impacts of Media Coverage on the Community Stress Level in Hong Kong after the Tsunami on 26 December 2004
Open accessAbstract
STUDY OBJECTIVES: The study investigated the prevalence and associated factors (media coverage in particular) of stress related responses to the December 2004 tsunami. DESIGN: An anonymous population based cross sectional telephone survey was conducted. Post-traumatic stress symptom was measured by the locally validated Chinese impact of event scale (CIES) and whether the respondent felt disturbed, apprehensive, or horrified because of the tsunami. Items related to media coverage included measures on frequency of exposure, level of distress caused by different types of images, and contents of the news messages were measured. Two summative scores, the weighted image unrest score (WIUS) and weighted content unrest score (WCUS) were formed. SETTING: Hong Kong, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 604 adult Chinese respondents were interviewed. MAIN RESULTS: Of the respondents, 33.8% were exposed to tsunami related mass media news reports >10 times per day; 56.5% to 64.7% felt severely or very severely disturbed by the six studied types of distressful messages; 52.6% to 71.4% felt similarly because of the eight studied types of distressful contents. Of the male respondents, 30% and 5.9% respectively showed signs of mild or moderate/severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (39% and 8.7%, respectively for women). Higher WIUS and higher WCUS were associated with mild or moderate/severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (multivariate OR = 1.72 to 14.67, p<0.05). These media exposure indicators, together with some other perception variables, were significantly associated with other stress indicators. CONCLUSIONS: The intensive media coverage of the tsunami was consistently associated with different types of tsunami related stress indicators.
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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.”
From Comprehensive review of chronic stress pathways and the efficacy of behavioral stress reduction programs (BSRPs) in managing diseases. (2024) · cites this paper as [136]
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.”
From Comprehensive review of chronic stress pathways and the efficacy of behavioral stress reduction programs (BSRPs) in managing diseases. (2024) · cites this paper as [136]
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- Authors
- Lau, J. T. F., Lau, M., Kim, J. H., & Tsui, H. Y.
- Affiliations
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Lau, Joseph T F
- ORCID
- Lau, Joseph T F
- Venue
- Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2006-07-13
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 675-682
- ISSN
- 0141-7681 (ISSN-L)
- 0143-005X
- 1470-2738
- PMC
- PMC2588088
- OpenAlex
- W2140732553
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, media coverage, post-traumatic stress, community stress, news exposure, news content, gender differences, Hong Kong
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disasters, Female, Hong Kong, Humans, Male, Mass Media, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Stress, Psychological, Prevalence, Sex Distribution
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