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Mental Illness Prevalence and Disparities Among Hurricane Sandy Survivors: A 2-Year Retrospective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2020

Chenyi Ma Open the ORCID record for Chenyi Ma [Opens in a new window] ,
Tony Edward Smith  and
Roberta Rehner Iversen
Chenyi Ma*
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Tony Edward Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Philadelphia, PA
Roberta Rehner Iversen
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Chenyi Ma, School of Social Policy and Practice,University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, McNeil Building, Room 523, Philadelphia, PA19104, USA (e-mail: machenyi@upenn.edu).
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Abstract

This study examined mental health status among Hurricane Sandy survivors in the most severely damaged areas of New York and New Jersey in 2014, approximately 2 years after this disaster. We used the 2014 Associated Press NORC survey of 1009 Sandy survivors to measure the prevalence of probable mental illness and to analyze its association with selected socioeconomic characteristics of survivors, direct impact by Sandy, as well as social support and social trust. The study found major disparities in mental illness by race/ethnicity, age groups, and employment status. Higher Sandy impact levels were strongly associated with higher rates of mental illness and accounted for much of the disparity between blacks and Hispanics compared with whites in our study group. Social support was more strongly associated with lower rates of mental illness than was social trust. In addition, social support served as a significant mitigating factor in the mental health disparities between blacks and whites. The severity of mental illness among Sandy survivors differed significantly among racial and ethnic groups but was moderated by both the direct impact of this disaster on their lives and the degree of social support they received, as well as how trusting they were.

Keywords

disastermental illnessracial disparitysocial supportsocial trust
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , October 2021 , pp. 579 - 588
Copyright
© 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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