assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder risk factors among law enforcement staff: a case-control study

Background: given the inherent nature of their job, law enforcement staff regularly confront major stressors.objectives: the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) among law enforcement staff is about twice that of the general population. we conducted this study to assess ptsd risk factors among this population. methods: this prospective case-control study was conducted on patients with ptsd working as law enforcement staff as the case group, and their comrades with no ptsd as the control group. we used a questionnaire, including possible factors contributing to the development of ptsd, to gather the data. binomial logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (or) and 95% confidence intervals. results: a total of 84 participants were included in the study. we found that some factors could be protective against ptsd, including marriage (or: 0.270, 95% ci: 0.087 - 0.839, p-value: 0.024), having an academic degree (or: 0.333, 95% ci: 0.114 - 0.978, p-value: 0.045), higher income (r2: 0.081; or: 0.849, 95% ci: 0.721 - 1.000, p-value: 0.050), and receiving satisfactory family support (or: 0.413, 95% ci: 0.171 - 0.999, p-value: 0.050). furthermore, logistic regression showed that a positive psychological history (or: 2.562, 95% ci: 1.025 - 6.406, p-value: 0.044), a positive familial psychological history (or: 2.667, 95% ci: 1.099 - 6.406, p-value: 0.030), and encountering trauma (aside from the current trauma) after 18 years of age (or: 2.643, 95% ci: 1.038 - 6.731, p-value: 0.041) are risk factors for ptsd. conclusions: our results showed that marriage, having an academic degree, higher income, and receiving satisfactory family support are protective factors. in addition, the risk factors for ptsd include a positive psychological history, a positive familial psychological history, and encountering trauma (aside from the current trauma) after 18 years of age. however, given our limitations, further studies should be conducted before drawing solid conclusions.