Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among Kuwaiti firefighters

It has been proven time and again that emergency service personnel experience much more stress than non-emergency workers. This has been a negative factor which affects their social, psychological, and emotional life. The purpose of the present study is to add to the cross-cultural data relating to the prevalence of posttraumatic stress among emergency services personnel, specifically firefighters. A random sample of 108 Kuwaiti firefighters yielded a psychometric prevalence of PTSD of 18.5%. These findings are consistent with data from the United States and from Canada.