Inequality, Socioeconomic Status, Social Support and Post-Disaster Mental Health in Mexico
by
Kari MacLauchlin
Univerisity of Florida
Coauthors: Eric C Jones, Sat N Gupta, Arthur D Murphy

The impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States highlighted the vulnerability of Gulf residents with limited resources. However, based on research from the Gulf of Mexico, we seek—in the context of disasters—to qualify the confirmed generalization that mental and physical health are associated with socioeconomic status. We conducted on socioeconomic status, social support, depression and somatization in two storm-impacted cities and four control cities in Mexico. Due lack of normality and homogeneity of variance on some variables, analyses of association involved chi-square and kruskal wallis, in addition to univariate regression models. Two years after the storms, social support returned to better than normal levels in Villahermosa, but not in Teziutlán—a harder hit city. Depression levels remained higher for disaster cities than for control cities, but somatization was similar for both disaster cities and control cities. Socioeconomic status and degree of exposure had minor effects on depression, while social support had greater impact.

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Date received: August 15, 2007