The acute stress disorder in the paediatric surgical children and adolescents injured in the Wenchuan earthquake of China

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence and the symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD) in the paediatric surgical children and adolescents injured in the Wenchuan earthquake of China. One hundred and eighteen children and adolescent inpatients were surveyed by the Acute Stress Disorder Scale (ASDS) within 1 month of the earthquake. Using the validated ASDS score above cut‐off threshold levels, the incidence of ASD in this sample was 54.3 per cent. The morbidity of ASD were 56.1, 24.6 and 19.3 per cent in the child group, in the early adolescent group and in the middle adolescent group, respectively. There was no significant difference among the three age groups about the severity of ASD symptom. The proportions of ASD‐positive were 44.0 per cent in males and 63.6 per cent in females that showed significant difference. The exposure risk factors were being buried in the earthquake, injury of parent, injury of relatives, amputation and operation. These results indicated that ASD was widely prevalent among the children and adolescents wounded in the earthquake, which needed an effective psychosocial intervention. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.