Validation of a Myanmar Version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised in Survivors after Disaster

The purpose of this study was to validate the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and find prevalence of PTSD for survivors who had experienced the disaster by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008.The cut-off point of IES-R total score 33 was calculated by CAPS-1 with a sensitivity 0.86 and specificity 0.98 with the AUC of IES-R-M was 0.98 (95% 0.95 to 1) . We found that there was a relatively high degree of correlation between the IES-R-M and CAPS-1 (r = 0.93, P <0.001). The internal consistency and validity were examined. The prevalence of PTSD was 20%. The risk factors for PTSD included lower education, dissatisfaction with current job, family loss and worry about rebuilding a house (p < 0.05, 95% CI). IES-R-M can be used as a reliability and valid instrument when evaluating psychological distress among survivors after disasters.