General Health Among Parents Who Lost Their Children in the Bam Earthquake

AIM: Bam earthquake and its profound tragedy of thousands killed has caused emotional and psychological trauma for tens of thousands of people who have survived. This study aimed to investigate general health of parents who lose their children in Bam earthquake 10 years after the earthquake.

METHOD: General health of 166 parents who lost their children in Bam earthquake was assessed using a translated version of General Health Questionnarie-28 items.

RESULTS: The mean score of GHQ was 25.63 ± 15.28. Among all domains, the higher mean score belonged to the category of “anxiety/insomnia” and the lower one belonged to the category of “severe depression. The results revealed significant correlation between total GHQ mean score and gender as well as educational level (0.003)

CONCLUSION: Providing reflective narrative environments in which survivors can express their own experiences and feelings about earthquake, their loss and how they cope with it seems to be as an effective approach to identify their psychosocial situation and its influential factors. In such narrative environments special attention should be given to older participants, females and those who are single.