B P International

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of trauma due to wars on quality of life of Palestine children living in Gaza with special reference to 2009 war. It is analytic study; the study sample consisted of 195 children and adolescents who were selected purposely from three areas in the Gaza Strip. Those children exposed to variety of traumatic events besides losing their homes during ground incursion of the border and shelling and bombardment of the area. They were 101 boys (51.8%) and 94 girls (48.2%). The age ranged from 7 to 18 years with mean age of 12.84 (SD = 2.9). Children were assessed by socio-demographic questionnaire, Gaza Traumatic Events Checklist, and Health Related Quality of Life. Results: The highest frequencies of reported traumatic events by Palestinians children were 97.9% hear shelling of the area by artillery, 93.3% hear the sonic sounds of the jetfighters, 90.8% watched mutilated bodies in TV, and 85.6% were forced to move from home to a saf...

Aims: To estimate the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms among traumatized Palestinian adolescents in Gaza Strip.  Methods: The study sample consisted of 380 adolescents randomly selected from secondary schools in Gaza Strip, of whom 171 were boys and 209 were girls between 15-18 years. Data was collected using a socio-demographic checklist, the Gaza Traumatic Events Checklist, and the Psychosomatic Symptoms Scale. For statistical analysis, questionnaire data was normally distributed, for this reason independent t-test was used to investigate differences between two groups. Associations between continuous variables were measured by the Pearson's correlation coefficient test. One-way ANOVA post hoc Tukey was used to investigate differences between more than two groups. Results: The most common reported traumatic events due to the war on Gaza were: watching mutilated bodies and wounded people in TV (92.3%), and hearing shelling of the area by artillery (89.4...