Association between long-term stressors and mental health distress following the 2013 Moore tornado: a pilot study

Abstract

PurposeStress has considerable impacts on human health, potentially leading to issues such as fatigue, anxiety and depression. Resource loss, a common outcome of disasters, has been found to contribute to stress among disaster survivors. Prior research focuses heavily on clinical mental health impacts of disaster experience, with less research on the effect of cumulative stress during long-term recovery. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of stressors including resource loss and debt on mental health in a sample of households in Moore, Oklahoma, impacted by a tornado in 2013.Design/methodology/approachFor this pilot study, questionnaires were mailed to households residing along the track of the May 2013 tornado in Moore, OK. Descriptive statistics were calculated to report sample characteristics and disaster experience. Independent associations between disaster losses and demographic characteristics with the outcome mental health were examined withχ2and unadjusted logistic regression analysis. Adjusted logistic regression models were fit to examine resource loss and mental health.FindingsFindings suggest that the tornado had considerable impacts on respondents: 56.24 percent (n=36) reported that their homes were destroyed or sustained major damage. Greater resource loss and debt were associated with mental health distress during long-term recovery from the Moore, OK, 2013 tornadoes.Research limitations/implicationsThe association between resource loss and mental health point to a need for interventions to mitigate losses such as bolstering social support networks, incentivizing mitigation and reducing financial constraints on households post-disaster.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a better understanding of long-term, accumulated stress post-disaster and the impact on health to a literature heavily focused on clinical outcomes.