Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 117, Issue 23, Pages 12595-12597Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006706117
Keywords
disasters; COVID-19 pandemic; Hurricane Katrina; mental health; physical health
Categories
Funding
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) [P01HD082032, R01HD057599, R01HD046162]
- NSF [BCS-0555240]
- MacArthur Grant [04-80775-000-HCD]
- Robert Wood Johnson Grant [23029]
- Princeton Center for Economic Policy Studies
- Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
- Brown Population Studies and Training Center [P2CHD041020]
- Malcolm H. Wiener PhD Scholarship
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Beyond their immediate effects on mortality, disasters have widespread, indirect impacts on mental and physical well-being by exposing survivors to stress and potential trauma. Identify-ing the disaster -related stressors that predict health adversity will help officials prepare for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Using data from a prospective study of young, low-income mothers who survived Hurricane Katrina, we find that bereavement, fearing for loved ones? well-being, and lacking access to medical care and medications predict adverse mental and physical health 1 y postdisaster, and some effects persist 12 y later. Adjusting for preexisting health and socioeconomic condi-tions attenuates, but does not eliminate, these associations. The findings, while drawn from a demographically unique sample, suggest that, to mitigate the indirect effects of COVID-19, lapses in medical care and medication use must be minimized, and pub-lic health resources should be directed to those with preexisting medical conditions, their social networks, and the bereaved.
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