TY - JOUR

T1 - University students’ experience of the Beirut port explosion

T2 - associations with subjective well-being and subjective symptoms of mental strain

AU - Bouclaous, Carmel

AU - Fadlallah, Najat

AU - El Helou, Mohamad Othman

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Background: On 4 August 2020, an explosion shook Beirut, killing more than 200 people and leaving thousands injured or homeless. Aims: This study examined mental health of university students through a cross-sectional online survey between December 2020 and January 2021. Methods: The questionnaire consisted of the WHO-5, sense of coherence (SoC), future anxiety, self-developed subjective symptoms of mental strain (SSMS), and items assessing proximity to explosion, extent of injury and house damage. Gender, study level and social status were used as sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Of 1042 participants, 30.8% were at 0–7 km from explosion; 38.1% reported physical injuries; and 12.4% saw their home damaged. Two third (60.3%) reported ≥3 SSMS, and 73.4% reported low well-being. Students with low well-being were more often female and master students (p < 0.001). Females were more often affected by ≥3 SSMS (p < 0.001). Regression analysis with low well-being as dependent variable revealed significant associations with study level (OR: 2.30–2.94), future anxiety (OR: 2.72–4.34) and SoC (OR: 1.81–5.61). For ≥3 SSMS, females (OR: 3.09), moderate/very close distance (OR: 2.13–4.98), injury/death of family member or friend (OR: 2.07–2.06), house damage (OR: 1.72) future anxiety (OR: 1.97–3.11) and SoC (1.79–2.88) were significant predictors. Discussion: Preventive mental health strategies that strengthen SoC and outlook on future could protect against SSMS and low well-being following major trauma.

AB - Background: On 4 August 2020, an explosion shook Beirut, killing more than 200 people and leaving thousands injured or homeless. Aims: This study examined mental health of university students through a cross-sectional online survey between December 2020 and January 2021. Methods: The questionnaire consisted of the WHO-5, sense of coherence (SoC), future anxiety, self-developed subjective symptoms of mental strain (SSMS), and items assessing proximity to explosion, extent of injury and house damage. Gender, study level and social status were used as sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Of 1042 participants, 30.8% were at 0–7 km from explosion; 38.1% reported physical injuries; and 12.4% saw their home damaged. Two third (60.3%) reported ≥3 SSMS, and 73.4% reported low well-being. Students with low well-being were more often female and master students (p < 0.001). Females were more often affected by ≥3 SSMS (p < 0.001). Regression analysis with low well-being as dependent variable revealed significant associations with study level (OR: 2.30–2.94), future anxiety (OR: 2.72–4.34) and SoC (OR: 1.81–5.61). For ≥3 SSMS, females (OR: 3.09), moderate/very close distance (OR: 2.13–4.98), injury/death of family member or friend (OR: 2.07–2.06), house damage (OR: 1.72) future anxiety (OR: 1.97–3.11) and SoC (1.79–2.88) were significant predictors. Discussion: Preventive mental health strategies that strengthen SoC and outlook on future could protect against SSMS and low well-being following major trauma.

KW - Beirut port explosion

KW - collective trauma

KW - future anxiety

KW - mental health

KW - mental strain

KW - sense of coherence

KW - wellbeing

KW - young adults

KW - Health sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141352693&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/270167ee-fa38-3b00-8cd1-42b955777b3a/

U2 - 10.1080/09638237.2022.2140785

DO - 10.1080/09638237.2022.2140785

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 36322513

AN - SCOPUS:85141352693

VL - 32

SP - 602

EP - 611

JO - Journal of Mental Health

JF - Journal of Mental Health

SN - 0963-8237

IS - 3

ER -