A Pre-/Post-Disaster Epidemiological Study of Mental Health Functioning in Vietnam's Da Nang Province Following...

In 2006, typhoon Xangsane struck Vietnam and disrupted a large-scale mental health needs analysis in the Da Nang province of Vietnam. Recruitment of new participants was halted, and the design of study was altered to that of a pre-/post-event investigation in which 798 of the original 4,982 participants were re-interviewed. This produced the first pre-post disaster epidemiological study. Specifically, risk and protective factors were evaluated with respect to probable mental health "caseness" on the bases of the World Health Organization Short Response Questionnaire (SRQ-20) 7/8 cutoff (i.e., scores of 8 or more). Caseness prevalence was 20.7% pre-disaster and 27.1% post-disaster. Specific risk factors associated with mental health caseness included poor health, extreme peri-disaster fear, and experienced injury. Religious affiliation appeared to be a protective factor. In contrast to US samples, gender was not predictive of outcome.