ArticleBMC public health2024
Mediating effect of depression and acute stress between exposure to Israel-Gaza war media coverage and insomnia: a multinational study from five arab countries.
Article in BMC public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Volunteering and resilience in wartime: evidence from two population-based studies in Israel.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Validation of the Turkish Fear of War Scale (FOWARS): Psychometric Evidence and Associations with Tolerance of Uncontrollability, Psychological Symptoms, and Personality Traits.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exposure to Conflict-Related News and Psychological Distress Among Nursing Students: The Mediating Role of Sleep Difficulties and Study Disruption.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- No sleep in the strait: war-related sleep disruption and its musculoskeletal consequences in the Hormuz crisis.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Assessment of depression and anxiety after exposure to psychological trauma among females in Jordan: A cross-sectional study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Revolution's aftermath: population based cross-sectional study to understand the intergeneration mental health and wellbeing following the 2024 student-led uprising.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- A multidimensional tool in disaster medicine: Development of the disaster anxiety scale.Northern clinics of Istanbul · 2026Article
- Comparative psychometric evaluation of the Arabic version of four patient-reported outcome measures for sleep assessment: a construct validity study using Rasch analysis.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2025Article
- Screens of suffering: how Gaza war news impacts students' minds and motivation.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Media Exposure and Vicarious Trauma: Italian Adaptation and Validation of the Media Vicarious Traumatization Scale and Its Impact on Young Adults' Mental Health in Relation to Contemporary Armed Conflicts.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Sleep quality among university students in Lebanon during war conflicts: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Ambivalent sexism predicts Israelis' gendered preferences in the Gaza hostage crisis.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Mediating effect of intolerance of uncertainty between feeling of unsafety and depression/well-being among a sample of Lebanese adults.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Granola consumption with multiple prebiotics in Japanese participants increasesFrontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
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9 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn the context of persistent wars and conflicts worldwide, the impact of acute, excessive and constant exposure to media coverage of such events on mental health outcomes becomes a serious problem for public health, and requires therefore urgent investigation to inform an effective prevention and management response. The objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that war-related media exposure is directly and indirectly associated with insomnia through depression and perceived stress among adults from the general population of different Arab countries.
methodsA cross-sectional study was carried-out two weeks after the beginning of Israel-Gaza war on the 7th of October 2023. An anonymous online survey and a snowball sampling method were adopted to collect data. A sample of 2635 general population adults (mean age of 23.98 ± 7.55 years, 73.1% females) took part of this study.
resultsThe results of the mediation analysis showed that, after adjusting over potential confounders, depression and perceived stress fully mediated the association between war media exposure and insomnia; higher war media exposure was significantly associated with higher depression (Beta = 0.13; p < .001) and perceived stress (Beta = 0.07; p < .001), whereas higher depression (Beta = 0.43; p < .001) and perceived stress (Beta = 0.31; p < .001) were significantly associated with higher insomnia. It is of note that war media exposure was not significantly and directly associated with insomnia (Beta = - 0.01; p = .178 and Beta = 0.02; p = .098 respectively).
conclusionThe present study is the first to provide evidence that more time spent viewing the horrors of war is significantly associated with insomnia. In addition, symptoms of stress and depression were present as early as two weeks following the beginning of the war, and played a significant role in mediating the association between war media coverage and insomnia. These findings suggest that timely screening for, and management of depression and stress symptoms in clinical and preventive programs might be beneficial for community adults who have been heavily and indirectly exposed to war through media, and present with insomnia.
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