Psychological status and physical disabilities of permanently disabled Sri Lankan servicemen

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the physical disabilities and to determine the prevalence of psychological ill health among permanently disabled servicemen. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 430 disabled servicemen were selected by stratified sampling from the 8 regiments of the Sri Lanka army. A self-dministered questionnaire was used to collect personal data and details of physical disabilities. The General Health Questionnaire and Bradford Somatic Inventory were used to detect psychological distress and the presence of somatic symptoms, respectively. RESULTS: Thirty-four (8.3%) of the 408 servicemen included in the analysis had more than 1 injury, giving a total of 442 injuries. The two most common disabilities were limb amputation (49.7%) and nerve injury (27.5%). 201 servicemen (49.3%) had a positive General Health Questionnaire result and 119 (29.2%) had a positive Bradford Somatic Inventory result. Of the 119 servicemen positive for Bradford Somatic Inventory, 109 (91.6%) had a positive General Health Questionnaire result (odds ratio, 23.3; 95% confidence interval, 11.2-49.9). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study may be useful for the adoption of a holistic approach for rehabilitation of disabled servicemen, and they emphasise the need for early diagnosis and treatment of psychological distress. AUTHOR KEYWORDS: Disabled persons; Military personnel; Psychological; Stress. INDEX KEYWORDS: adolescent; adult; army; article; controlled study; demography; disease severity; distress syndrome; emotional stress; General Health Questionnaire; health status; human; limb amputation; major clinical study; male; mass screening; nerve injury; physical disability; prevalence; psychiatric diagnosis; Sri Lanka