Symptoms of posttraumatic stress partially mediate the relationship between gender-based violence and alcohol misuse among South African women

Table 1 Key participant characteristics by alcohol misuse status

Variables in mean (SD), median (IQR) or n (%)	No-alcohol misuse (n = 1117)	Alcohol misuse (n = 498)	P-value
Age (years)	25.2 (5.6)	25.3 (5.0)	0.668
Education, n (%)			0.457
Primary (1–7 years) (n = 651)	443 (39.7)	208 (41.8)
≥High school (≥ 8 years) (n = 964)	674 (60.3)	290 (58.2)
Employment, n (%)			0.921
No (n = 1285)	890 (79.7)	395 (79.3)
Yes (n = 330)	227 (20.3)	103 (20.7)
Income, n (%)	n = 337	n = 147	0.452
<R2000 (n = 339)	233 (69.1)	106 (72.1)
R2000-R5000 (n = 121)	89 (26.4)	32 (21.8)
>R5000 (n = 24)	15 (4.5)	9 (6.1)
Resident area, n (%)	n = 1101	n = 493	0.002
Formal urban	764 (69.4)	378 (76.7)*
Informal urban	192 (17.4)	77 (15.6)
Rural and Semi-rural	145 (13.2)	38 (7.7)*
Mental health (median, IQR)
CES-D depression symptom score (0–60)	18 (10–34)	23 (12–37)*	< 0.001
Post-traumatic stress symptom score (0–68)	10 (0–34)	21 (3–41)*	< 0.001
Other traumatic exposures score (0–11)	1 (0–3)	2 (1–4)*	< 0.001

SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range. Alcohol misuse was defined as scored ≥ 3 in the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption questions (AUDIT-C). No-alcohol misuse as AUDIT-C scored 0–2; Resident areas classification based on understanding where the people live: i.e. formal urban: brick house with available public services such as electricity and tapped water; informal urban: i.e. townships which could be informal housing and where public services are limited; rural and semi-rural: typical farming areas, etc.; CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression: examined experiences of depressive symptoms in the previous week; Post-traumatic stress symptom: measured using Davidson Trauma Scale. Other traumatic exposures: imprisonment, witnessing a murder robbed at gun or knife point, etc. *Indicates a statistical significance

ISSN: 1747-597X