Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis Al Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.
The Tunisian Center of Early Intervention in Psychosis, Department of Psychiatry Ibn Omrane, Razi Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Jun 4;24(1):1498. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18996-8.
In the context of persistent wars and conflicts worldwide, the impact of acute, excessive and constant exposure to media coverage of such events on mental health outcomes becomes a serious problem for public health, and requires therefore urgent investigation to inform an effective prevention and management response. The objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that war-related media exposure is directly and indirectly associated with insomnia through depression and perceived stress among adults from the general population of different Arab countries.
A cross-sectional study was carried-out two weeks after the beginning of Israel-Gaza war on the 7th of October 2023. An anonymous online survey and a snowball sampling method were adopted to collect data. A sample of 2635 general population adults (mean age of 23.98 ± 7.55 years, 73.1% females) took part of this study.
The results of the mediation analysis showed that, after adjusting over potential confounders, depression and perceived stress fully mediated the association between war media exposure and insomnia; higher war media exposure was significantly associated with higher depression (Beta = 0.13; p < .001) and perceived stress (Beta = 0.07; p < .001), whereas higher depression (Beta = 0.43; p < .001) and perceived stress (Beta = 0.31; p < .001) were significantly associated with higher insomnia. It is of note that war media exposure was not significantly and directly associated with insomnia (Beta = - 0.01; p = .178 and Beta = 0.02; p = .098 respectively).
The present study is the first to provide evidence that more time spent viewing the horrors of war is significantly associated with insomnia. In addition, symptoms of stress and depression were present as early as two weeks following the beginning of the war, and played a significant role in mediating the association between war media coverage and insomnia. These findings suggest that timely screening for, and management of depression and stress symptoms in clinical and preventive programs might be beneficial for community adults who have been heavily and indirectly exposed to war through media, and present with insomnia.
在全球持久战争和冲突的背景下，急性、过度和持续接触此类事件的媒体报道对心理健康结果的影响成为公共卫生的一个严重问题，因此需要紧急调查以提供有效的预防和管理应对措施。本研究的目的是检验以下假设，即与战争相关的媒体暴露通过成年人的抑郁和感知压力与来自不同阿拉伯国家的普通人群中的失眠直接和间接相关。
在 2023 年 10 月 7 日以色列-加沙战争开始两周后进行了一项横断面研究。采用匿名在线调查和雪球抽样法收集数据。这项研究共纳入了 2635 名普通人群成年人（平均年龄为 23.98±7.55 岁，73.1%为女性）。
中介分析结果表明，在调整潜在混杂因素后，抑郁和感知压力完全中介了战争媒体暴露与失眠之间的关联；较高的战争媒体暴露与较高的抑郁（β=0.13；p<0.001）和感知压力（β=0.07；p<0.001）显著相关，而较高的抑郁（β=0.43；p<0.001）和感知压力（β=0.31；p<0.001）与较高的失眠显著相关。值得注意的是，战争媒体暴露与失眠之间没有显著的直接关联（β=-0.01；p=0.178 和β=0.02；p=0.098）。
本研究首次提供证据表明，观看战争恐怖场景的时间增加与失眠显著相关。此外，在战争开始后两周内就出现了压力和抑郁症状，并且在战争媒体报道与失眠之间的关联中起着重要作用。这些发现表明，在临床和预防计划中及时筛查和管理抑郁和压力症状可能对通过媒体间接受到战争严重影响并出现失眠的社区成年人有益。
