Physical and Mental Health of Disaster Victims: A Comparative Study on Typhoon and Oil Spill Disasters / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare the physical and mental health status of disaster victims according to disaster types, such as a typhoon disaster and an oil spill disaster, and to suggest adequate health care services for them. METHODS: A total of 484 people who suffered disasters were selected for this study, and data were collected from July to August, 2008. The data-set for this study included 286 victims of typhoon disasters in Jeju and Jeollanamdo district in South Korea, and 198 victims of the oil spill disaster in Taean. Physical health status was measured using revised Patient Health Questionnaire and mental health status was measured using the Korean version of 'Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale'. RESULTS: According to the comparative analyses of typhoon disaster victims and oil spill disaster victims, poorer physical health outcomes were shown among the oil spill disaster victims when compared to the typhoon disaster victims. Also, the oil spill disaster victims showed symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, at rates higher than those found among the typhoon disaster victims. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that there is a need to provide adequate physical and mental health-related care services for oil spill disaster victims. The seriousness of oil spill disaster should be realized and reconsidered in developing recovery strategies and disaster preparedness for physical and mental health services.

A Field Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Community after Typhoon Rusa / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: In South Korea, as growing the need of psychological support in disaster situation psychological assessment on stress after disaster is important to find out the factors affecting coping, and to plan intervention in the community. METHOD: The volunteers of Korea Redcross who live around K city, and the research team visited all homes at Jirye town, one of the high-impact area, 4 month after the typhoon. One of the family members who is over 18 years old, answered the self-report questionnaire composed of disaster experience, damage, exposure to traumatic event, and posttraumatic stress with IES-K (Impact of Event Scale-korea) He also, described his family members symptom related to re-experiencing, hyper-arousal, and avoidance. Six hundreds households were surveyed. RESULT: The prevalence of moderate to severe PTSD symptom was 36% of the subjects. The severity of PTSD was affected by gender, economic status and affected by damaged property, physical injury, worsening existing disease, getting infectious disease, amount of experienced traumatic event before disaster, warning, taking shelter, and subjects revealed differences in somatization as severity of PTSD. According to the description, community members had re-experiencing, hyper-arousal and avoidance. CONCLUSION: At a rural area, South Korea, community members have suffered from psychological distress after disaster. So psychological interventions are required as affecting factors and also to plan for warning and shelter in disaster situation is needed for preventing PTSD.