ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1544289
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Anxiety and Their Predictors Among Internally Displaced Person in Conflict-affect Area of Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia: Structural Equation Modeling
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Health Sciences, Assosa University, Assosa, Ethiopia
- 2Department of General Forestry, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, Gonder, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
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Internally displaced persons are people forced to leave their homes due to natural or man-made disasters. Mental health illnesses were linked to conflict and displacement. Posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety have the highest rates. However, there are few studies on mental health among internally displaced persons in conflict-affected areas in Ethiopia.To fill this information and methodological gap, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the direct and indirect effects of factors.Objective: The study aimed to assess the magnitude and determinants of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety among internally displaced persons in the conflict area of Metekel Zone, northwest Ethiopia, 2023.A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1042 participants selected by Systematic sampling method. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews and Structural Equation Modeling was used to assess the interrelationship among the variables.The magnitude of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression were 74.56%, 76.9%, and 79.53% respectively. Being female (𝛽 = 0.566, 95% CI: 0.554, 0.580), death of beloved one (𝛽 = 0.241, 95% CI: 0.192, 0.294), displaced two times (𝛽 = 0.136, 95% CI: 0.089, 0.184), and Social-support (𝛽 =-0.210, 95% CI: -0.346, 0.145) were factors that affected anxiety.The significant factors for post-traumatic stress disorder were being female 𝛽 = 0.436, 95% CI: 0.377, 0.496), death of a beloved one (𝛽 = 0.341, 95% CI: 0.289, 0.394), social support (𝛽 = -0.162, 95% CI: -0.222, -0.110) and anxiety (𝛽 = 0.773, 95% CI: 0.701, 0.852). In addition to the significant independent variables, the factors anxiety ( 𝛽 = 0.762, 95% CI: 0.643, 0.893), and posttraumatic stress disorder (𝛽 = 0.254, 95% CI: 0.185, 0.339) had an impact on depression.The magnitude of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression were found to be high. Older age IDPs, female IDPs, and those who did not supported by friends or government were found to be most at risk. Emphasis is needed on the promotion of mental health practices for internally displaced persons due to a conflict, especially for IDPs with poor social support, who have a history of death of beloved one.
Keywords: PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, IDPs, Structural Equation Modeling, Metekel zone
Received: 12 Dec 2024; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Debela, Mekonnen and Teklu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Solomon Debela, College of Health Sciences, Assosa University, Assosa, Ethiopia
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