%0 Journal Article %T Evacuation of Swedish survivors after the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami: The survivors* perspective and symptoms of post %A Christina M. Hultman %A Ragnhildur Gudmundsdottir %A Unnur Valdimarsdottir %J Scandinavian Journal of Public Health %@ 1651-1905 %D 2019 %R 10.1177/1403494818771418 %X Aims: Following the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, Swedish authorities received public criticism for slow implementation of rescue work. Meanwhile, data are scarce on survivors* perspectives and potential mental health symptoms associated with timing of evacuation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate survivors* contentment with evacuation time and whether duration at disaster site following the 2004 tsunami was associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and psychological morbidity. Methods: Of 10,116 Swedish tsunami survivors who returned to Sweden in the first 3 weeks post tsunami, 4910 (49%) answered a questionnaire 14 months later including questions on evacuation time, contentment with evacuation time and PTSS (Impact of Event Scale). We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of PTSS by timing of evacuation adjusting for gender, age, education, various indicators of trauma exposure and pre-tsunami psychiatric diagnoses. Results: More than half of the survivors (53%) were content with evacuation time while 33% wanted later evacuation and 13% earlier evacuation. Compared with those evacuated 14每21 days post tsunami, individuals evacuated at day 1每4 presented with increased odds of PTSS (crude OR 3.0, 95% CI 2.0每4.5; and multivariable adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.3每3.0) and impaired mental health (crude OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2每2.4; and multivariable adjusted OR 1.4 95% CI 1.0每2.0). Conclusions: One-third of Swedish tsunami survivors preferred a later evacuation from disaster sites. These findings call for further studies, with prospective designs, to disentangle the causal direction of the association between evacuation time and PTSS %K Disaster %K emergency preparedness %K evacuation %K mental health %K post-traumatic stress %K rescue work %K tsunami %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1403494818771418