We attempt to shed light on this question by presenting data on prevalence-correlates of disaster-related PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. Measures of severity of exposure to disaster-related stressors are among the strongest risk factors for PTSD in post-disaster surveys (Fergusson et al. 2014; Goldmann & Galea, 2014; Bromet et al. 2016). Other key risk factors include pre-disaster psychopathology, female gender, younger age at the time of the disaster, and early childhood adversity (Sayed et al. 2015). We use information about these potential predictors to examine PTSD prevalence and correlates among respondents in a series of WMH surveys who reported lifetime exposure to disasters.
