228704 Mortality, Morbidity and Displacement in Haiti: A Random Survey of Port-au-Prince Households Before and After the January 2010 Earthquake

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 3:30 PM - 3:50 PM

Athena Kolbe, MSW , Joint Doctoral Program - Social Work & Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Detroit, MI
Robert Muggah, PhD , Small Arms Survey, Small Arms Survey/Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
Naomi Levitz, MSW , Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, University Psychiatric Centers/Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Bart Miles, PhD, MSW , School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Royce Hutson, PhD , School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Eileen Trzcinski, PhD , School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Sergio Balistra, PhD , Faculty of Social Science/Department of Sociology, State University of Haiti, Detroit, MI
Dave Jean, BS , Department of Clinical Psychology, George Washington University, Washington, DC
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.

Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1) Compare the physical health problems reported by Haitian households before the January 2010 earthquake with those reported afterwards; describe the impact of the earthquake on displacement, mortality and morbidity amongst the population of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. 2) Evaluate the effect that displacement, access to basic needs, and access to community services has had on the health of Port-au-Prince residents. 3) Describe common diseases affecting Haitians in Port-au-Prince and the frequency with which these diseases were reported in both displaced and non-displaced households after the January 2010 earthquake. 4) Explain some of the challenges facing heath care providers serving earthquake survivors in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and describe what efforts are being made to address some of the problems identified by this study.

Keywords: Disasters, Access to Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was considerably involved in the methods and analysis of this report
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.