Duty-related trauma and PTSD symptoms in US urban firefighters

Abstract Background Little is known about the multi-dimensional nature of traumatic duty-related events encountered by firefighters in relation to their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) risk. Aims To describe the types of duty-related events encountered by career firefighters and explore if years in the fire service or total event load moderated the association of trauma exposure to PTSD symptoms. Methods Participants included 755 career, male firefighters (19% of the department’s firefighters and 76% of those who accessed the electronic anonymous survey). The Duty-Related Incident Stressors scale was used to assess exposure to 25 potentially traumatic events (event load) and self-appraisal of the stress associated with these events, grouped by type of event (indirect, direct and colleague-related). The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist was used to assess PTSD symptoms. Results Firefighters rated colleague-related events as the most stressful, followed by indirect and direct events. Event load (r = 0.25) and indirect, direct and colleague-related events stress (r = 0.32–0.35) were positively associated with PTSD symptoms. Results of moderation analyses indicated that event load served as a risk factor in the relation of indirect events stress to PTSD symptoms, and as a buffer in the relation of direct events stress to PTSD symptoms. Years in the fire service were not associated with PTSD symptoms nor moderated the relation of event stress to PTSD symptoms. Conclusions Findings underscored the importance of considering the differential effects that types of duty-related traumatic events and cumulative exposure to trauma may have on firefighters’ PTSD symptoms.