Perceived stress and its associated factors among people living in post-war Districts of Northern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

by Mesfin Tadese, Saba Desta Tessema, Abebe Mihretie, Getu Engida Wake, Hana Nigussie Teshome, Getaneh Baye Mulu, Tesfa Dejenie Habtewold

War and conflict environments result in long-term physical and psychological consequences. Sexual violence, displacement, malnutrition, death, illness, injury, torture, and disability are some of the physical effects, whereas stress, depression, aggressive behaviors, and anxiety are some of the emotional complications of war. Hence, evidence-based interventions are required particularly to monitor mental health disorders. Thus, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of perceived stress and its associated factors among people living in post-war situations, Northern Ethiopia.

A community-based cross-sectional study design was employed among 812 samples from April 1 to May 15, 2022. The study participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured and pre-tested tool. Data were cleaned and entered into Epi-Data version 4.6 and transferred to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify determinants of perceived stress. The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit was applied to test for model fitness and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The prevalence of perceived stress was 76.1%, 95% CI (72.9–78.8). Age above 45 years (AOR (CI) = 2.45 (1.07–5.62), poor educational level (AOR (CI) = 5.92 (2.36–14.8), large family size (AOR (CI) = 0.48 (0.31–0.74), alcohol consumption (AOR (CI) = 0.63 (0.42–0.94), smoking (AOR (CI) = 0.17 (0.06–0.56), and exposure to multiple traumatic events (AOR (CI) = 2.38 (1.23–4.62) have shown a statistically significant association with perceived stress.

This study revealed that more than three-fourths of participants living in post-war settings were found to have perceived stress. Older age, poor level of education, large family size, alcohol consumption, smoking, and the number of traumatic events were significant associates of perceived stress. Psychotherapy that can effectively address the medical, social, and psychological well-being of the community is important to reduce the burden of perceived stress.