142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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303883
Neighborhood crime, intimate partner violence, and mental health in pregnant women in a disaster recovery environment

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Veronica Barcelona de Mendoza, MSN, MPH, RN, APHN-BC , School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Emily W. Harville, PhD , School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Dept of Epidemiology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Gloria Giarratano, APRN, CNS, PhD , School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA
Jane Savage, RN, PhD, CNE, LCCE, FACCE , Nursing, Loyola Unviversity of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Background:  In post-disaster environments such as New Orleans, neighborhood disruption, crime and intimate partner violence persist.  In such resource-poor areas, mental health services may still be inadequate. 

Methods:  Women (n=296) were interviewed at prenatal and community clinics between 2010-2012 in a larger study on hurricane recovery and models of prenatal care.  Perception of neighborhood safety, domestic violence, depression, and post-traumatic stress were examined using validated instruments for mental health outcomes.  Logistic regression was used to model outcomes and adjust for confounders.

Results:  The majority of respondents (80.1%) said that their neighborhoods were about the same or safer than last year, and 12% reported domestic violence.  Nearly one third of participants (32.2%) stated that they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with police protection in their neighborhoods, and that muggings occurred fairly or very often (24.5%).  Satisfaction with police protection was significantly associated with depression (p for trend=.02), and PTSD (p for trend=.01).  Neighborhood drug use was associated with depression (p<.01) and PTSD (p=.03), and muggings were also associated with depression (p<.01).  Feeling that the neighborhood was less safe in the last year was associated with increased risk of depression (aOR 2.78, 95% CI 1.52-5.09) and PTSD (aOR 3.27, 95% CI 1.32-8.11). Domestic violence (some or high) was associated with both depression (p for trend<.01).

Conclusion:  Perceptions of neighborhood crime and domestic violence were significantly associated with depression and PTSD in this sample.  Prenatal programs should consider violence and safety screening in addition to mental health referrals in resource-poor communities.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
Describe two neighborhood level risk factors associated with mental illness symptoms in pregnant women living in a post-disaster environment.

Keyword(s): Disasters, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an Advanced Public Health Nurse with experience working in low-resource settings with diverse communities. I have been an educator in Community Health Nursing, and participated in data collection and analysis for this study. I am currently a doctoral student in Reproductive Epidemiology.
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.

Back to: 2038.0: Personal, structural, and institutional risk markers and Interventions associated with reproductive and perinatal health