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Perceived Service Need After Hurricane Sandy in a Representative Sample of Survivors: The Roles of Community-Level Damage and Individual-Level Stressors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

Laura Sampson ,
Sarah R. Lowe ,
Oliver Gruebner ,
Gregory H. Cohen  and
Sandro Galea
Laura Sampson*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Sarah R. Lowe
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
Oliver Gruebner
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
Gregory H. Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York.
Sandro Galea
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York.
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Laura Sampson, Boston University, Department of Epidemiology, 715 Albany St, Boston, MA 02118 (e-mail: Lsamps@bu.edu).
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Abstract

Objective

We aimed to explore how individually experienced disaster-related stressors and collectively experienced community-level damage influenced perceived need for mental health services in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study we analyzed 418 adults who lived in the most affected areas of New York City at the time of the storm. Participants indicated whether they perceived a need for mental health services since the storm and reported on their exposure to disaster-related stressors (eg, displacement, property damage). We located participants in communities (n=293 census tracts) and gathered community-level demographic data through the US Census and data on the number of damaged buildings in each community from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Modeling Task Force.

Results

A total of 7.9% of participants reported mental health service need since the hurricane. Through multilevel binomial logistic regression analysis, we found a cross-level interaction (P=0.04) between individual-level exposure to disaster-related stressors and community-level building damage. Individual-level stressors were significantly predictive of individual service needs in communities with building damage (adjusted odds ratio: 2.56; 95% confidence interval: 1.58-4.16) and not in communities without damage.

Conclusion

Individuals who experienced individual stressors and who lived in more damaged communities were more likely to report need for services than were other persons after Hurricane Sandy. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:428–435)

Keywords

community mental health serviceshurricanestress disorderspost-traumatic
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 10 , Special Issue 3: Superstorm Sandy , June 2016 , pp. 428 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2016 

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