Mortality, Morbidity and Displacement in Haiti: A Random Survey of Port-au-Prince Households Before and After the January 2010 Earthquake

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has a long history of poverty and violence which was only compounded by the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Using Random GPS Coordinate Sampling (RGCS) 1800 households in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan areas were surveyed in summer 2009 as part of the University of Michigan Haiti Violence Assessment, a national household study on health and harm conducted in cooperation with the Small Arms Survey. Respondents (or another adult household member, if the original respondent was unable to participate due to death or injury) were re-interviewed after the January 2010 earthquake to determine changes in the household data including deaths, injuries, property destruction, crime victimization, and changes in physical and mental health. Displacement, resulting in both internal and external migration was found to be common amongst the study population. Data from the study is being used to estimate rates of death (both during and in the aftermath of the earthquake), specific injuries, injury-related infections, and commonly reported diseases (eg, diarrhea). An additional assessment was conducted of the household's post-earthquake access to basic needs for food, clean water, shelter, sanitation, and medical care in their current geographic location in order to understand the immediate needs of the population and to examine the impact that displacement and changes in access to basic needs has had on the health of household members.