Psychological Effects Related to Accident among Victims

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the psychological effect related to accident among victims in Najran City hospitals, Saudi Arabia. Study Design: A cross sectional study. Subjects and Methods: This is a descriptive study of cross-sectional design conducted in Najran City hospitals. The study population encompasses all patients of post-traumatic accidents that were admitted to Najran City hospitals during the data collection period. The patients were invited to participate in the study. Non-probability convenience sampling method was used. A questionnaire was devised, developed, and administered to measure the psychological effects related to accident among victims. For statistical analysis, descriptive measures, including frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and p-value were employed. Results: The study reveals that more than half of the studied victims (57.8%) were between 21 to 30 years old. All of them were males, indicating high rate of causalities in Najran City among youngsters. In terms of post-traumatic experience, the study reveals that 82.2% of the respondents had negative feelings about themselves. The victims also complained of several other psychological effects. In addition, certain cases of oversleep and excessive anxiety were recorded. The statistical analysis showed no significance between the studied psychological effects related to accident among victims in Najran City hospitals and their characteristics except in terms of marital status and work income. Conclusion: The study concludes that victims of accidents suffer psychologically in the post-traumatic phase. The injuries sustained after the incidents leave the victims suffering from negative feeling about themselves. Given these results, it is recommended that authorities should increase the road instructions to improve awareness of drivers. It is believed that the road instruction would increase road safety and minimize the risk of vehicle accidents.