Trauma in the 7th Tromsø survey
Many people will experience stressful or potentially traumatizing life events such as accidents, violence, or sexual assault during their lifetime. Numerous studies have shown that trauma experiences are associated with somatic and mental health issues.
The aim of this study is to map the occurrence of traumatic life events in the 7th Tromsø Study and to examine how these are related to a range of health variables including anxiety, depression, alcohol and tobacco use, sleep difficulties, pain, dental health, obesity, diabetes, respiratory, skin, and cardiovascular diseases, birth complications, cognitive function, school dropout, as well as the use of prescription drugs, health services, and mortality.
The study will also examine moderating factors such as personality, social support, resilience, and physical activity, and possible mediating factors such as metabolic and neuroendocrine risk factors. There are also opportunities to study genetic risk for the development of psychopathology, interactions between genes and environment, and possibly epigenetic mechanisms underlying these. The results will be an important contribution to increasing knowledge about stressful life events, protective factors, and somatic and mental health in the population.
The research group for clinical psychology developed a total of ten questions about stressful and potentially traumatizing life events that were included in the 7th Tromsø Study. To date, four articles have been published on these data, but several manuscripts are under preparation or have been submitted to scientific journals for peer review.
See also here
Publications:
Thimm, Jens; Rognmo, Kamilla; Nermo, Hege; Johnsen, Jan-Are Kolset; Skre, Ingunn Berta Gjerdåker; Wang, Catharina Elisabeth Arfwedson. Associations between stressful life events in childhood/adolescence and adulthood: results from the 7th Tromsø survey. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2023; ARKIV/ DOI
Nermo, Hege; Willumsen, Tiril; Rognmo, Kamilla; Thimm, Jens; Wang, Catharina Elisabeth Arfwedson; Johnsen, Jan-Are Kolset. Dental anxiety and potentially traumatic events: a cross-sectional study based on the Tromsø Study—Tromsø 7. BMC Oral Health, 2021; ARKIV / DOI
Thimm, Jens; Rognmo, Kamilla; Rye, Marte; Flåm, Anna Margrete; Næss, Eva Therese; Skre, Ingunn; Wang, Catharina Elisabeth Arfwedson. The prevalence of potentially traumatic events in the seventh survey of the population-based Tromsø study (Tromsø 7). Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2021; ARKIV / DOI10.
Thimm, Jens; Kristoffersen, Agnete Egilsdatter; Ringberg, Unni. The prevalence of severe grief reactions after bereavement and their associations with mental health, physical health, and health service utilization: a population-based study. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2020; Volum 11 (1). ISSN 2000-8066.s doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1844440.
Members:
Financial/grant information:
Internally funded by the Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and several smaller funding sources for individual articles.