TY - GEN A1 - Walczewska, Jolanta N2 - BACKGROUND: The Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a severe psychological and physical response or the result of exposure to a stressful event that the person perceives as highly traumatic. There is evidence that repeated episodes of psychological stress can lead to a chronic activation of stress reactions, which may be associated with risk of several illnesses like hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular conditions, glucose and lipids metabolism disturbances, chronic inflammatory process and deteriorating of cognition function. AIM AND METHODS: The aim of the study was to explore the relationship and or causality of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after Word War II and somatic and mental health in the elderly. There were two groups of patients: 80 subjects with PTSD as the result of deportation in childhood from Poland to Siberia in 1940-1946. The second group consisted of 70 primary care patients with and without PTSD. The medical history consisted of past and current diseases and the physical examinations were completed for everybody. The fasting glucose, lipid profile were measured and moreover the pulse wave velocity examination and balance platform were also performed. Additionally the ADL, Lawton scale, MMSE, GDS and quality of life questionnaires of all participants were conducted . The statistical analysis considered the student’s test, N2 - the chi square test, and Anova. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that in the Siberian group the level of education was significantly lower than in control group. Among the Siberian deportees there were higher frequency of ischemic heart disease, gastric ulcer, hypoacusis. A higher values of SBP, DBP, PWV, fasting glucose, lipids were observed in Siberian deportees group. There were also differences in physical and mental capacities between groups and overall the mental disabilities, depression, cognition function impairment were more frequent among Siberians. The quality of life examination using short form-36 questionnaire showed that there were differences between groups in all parameters relating to the quality of life. The former deportees were characterized by significantly lower results in all fields of quality of life. When comparing the Siberian and control group only with respect to the level of education (ie; primary and secondary education )and the existence and the severity of a broad group of medical and physical and psychological conditions and diseases( ie;blood pressure, glucose and lipids metabolism, geriatric assessment, quality of life) the PTSD had more negative impact on the psychological and physical health outcomes than the level of the education. The physical and mental health state deterioration was connected with intensity of PTSD. CONCLUSION: All former N2 - deportees have experienced extremely traumatic events during deportation and developed PTSD. Among former Siberians higher level of cardiovascular risk was noticed, also cognitive function impairment, higher frequency of depression, disability and lower quality of life were present in comparison to non Siberians. CY - Kraków L2 - http://dl.cm-uj.krakow.pl:8080/Content/1045 PY - 2008 KW - cardiovascular risk KW - quality of life KW - geriatric assessment KW - PTSD KW - deportees T1 - Quality of life and health status assessment among people deported to Siberia in their childhood from 1940-1946 UR - http://dl.cm-uj.krakow.pl:8080/dlibra/publication/edition/1045 ER -