Background. Floods are the most common natural disaster and the leading cause of natural disaster fatalities worldwide. Risk of catastrophic losses due to flooding is significant given deforestation and the increasing proximity of large populations to coastal areas, river basins and lakeshores. The objectives of this review were to describe the impact of flood events on human populations in terms of mortality, injury, and displacement and, to the extent possible, identify risk factors associated with these outcomes. This is one of five reviews on the human impact of natural disasters Methods. Data on the impact of floods were compiled using two methods, a historical review of flood events from 1980 to 2009 from multiple databases and a systematic literature review of publications ending in October 2012. Analysis included descriptive statistics, bivariate tests for associations and multinomial logistic regression of flood characteristics and mortality using Stata 11.0. Findings. There were 539,811 deaths (range: 510,941 to 568,680), 361,974 injuries and 2,821,895,005 people affected by floods between 1980 and 2009. Inconsistent reporting suggests this is an underestimate, particularly in terms of the injured and affected populations. The primary cause of flood-related mortality is drowning; in developed countries being in a motor-vehicle and male gender are associated with increased mortality, whereas female gender may be linked to higher mortality in low-income countries. Conclusions. Expanded monitoring of floods, improved mitigation measures, and effective communication with civil authorities and vulnerable populations has the potential to reduce loss of life in future flood events.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant national and global public health concern, with COVID-19 pandemic increasing IPV and associated health issues. Immigrant women may be disproportionately vulnerable to IPV-related health risks during the pandemic. Using qualitative in-depth interviews, we explored the perspectives of service providers (n ¼ 17) and immigrant survivors of IPV(n ¼ 45) on the impact of COVID-19 on immigrant women, existing services for survivors and strategies needed needed to enhance women's health and safety. Participants reported issues such as increased IPV and suggested strategies (e.g. strengthening virtual platforms). The findings could be informative for providers in national and international settings.
BackgroundExperiencing systematic violence and trauma increases the risk of poor mental health outcomes; few interventions for these types of exposures have been evaluated in low resource contexts. The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to assess the effectiveness of two psychotherapeutic interventions, Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression (BATD) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), in reducing depression symptoms using a locally adapted and validated version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist and dysfunction measured with a locally developed scale. Secondary outcomes included posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and traumatic grief symptoms.MethodsTwenty community mental health workers, working in rural health clinics, were randomly assigned to training in one of the two interventions. The community mental health workers conducted baseline assessments, enrolled survivors of systematic violence based on severity of depression symptoms, and randomly assigned them to treatment or waitlist-control. Blinded community mental health workers conducted post-intervention assessments on average five months later.ResultsAdult survivors of systematic violence were screened (N = 732) with 281 enrolled in the trial; 215 randomized to an intervention (114 to BATD; 101 to CPT) and 66 to waitlist-control (33 to BATD; 33 to CPT). Nearly 70% (n = 149) of the intervention participants completed treatment and post-intervention assessments; 53 (80%) waitlist-controls completed post-intervention assessments. Estimated effect sizes for depression and dysfunction were 0.60 and 0.55 respectively, comparing BATD participants to all controls and 0.84 and 0.79 respectively, compared to BATD controls only. Estimated effect sizes for depression and dysfunction were 0.70 and 0.90 respectively comparing CPT participants to all controls and 0.44 and 0.63 respectively compared to CPT controls only. Using a permutation-based hypothesis test that is robust to the model assumptions implicit in regression models, BATD had significant effects on depression (p = .003) and dysfunction (p = .007), while CPT had a significant effect on dysfunction only (p = .004).ConclusionsBoth interventions showed moderate to strong effects on most outcomes. This study demonstrates effectiveness of these interventions in low resource environments by mental health workers with limited prior experience.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.Gov NCT00925262. Registered June 3, 2009.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0360-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Background The aim of this study was to review the growth curve mixture modelling (GCMM) literature investigating trajectories of perinatal maternal depressive symptoms and associated risk factors. Methods A systematic search of peer-reviewed articles published until November 2015 was conducted in seven databases. Articles using GCMM to identify trajectories of perinatal depressive symptoms were considered. Symptoms had to be assessed at least three times, anytime from pregnancy to two years postpartum (PROSPERO; 2016:CRD42016032600). Results Eleven studies met inclusion criteria. All reported a low risk trajectory, characterised by stable low depressive symptoms throughout the perinatal period. A stable moderate-high or high symptom trajectory was reported in eight of 11 studies, suggesting a high-risk group with persistent depressive symptoms. Six studies also reported transient trajectories, with either increasing, decreasing or episodic depressive symptoms. None of the demographic, personality or clinical characteristics investigated systematically differentiated groups of women with different symptom trajectories, within or across studies. Thus, it is difficult to differentiate women at high or low risk of specific perinatal depression trajectories. Limitations A meta-analysis was not possible. The studies' settings and inclusion criteria limit the generalisability of the findings to low-risk, middle- to high-income women. Conclusions Relatively similar trajectories of perinatal depressive symptoms were identified across studies. Evidence on factors differentiating women assigned to different trajectories was inconsistent. Research with larger samples and in more diverse settings is needed to inform services and policies on how and when to effectively identify subgroups of women at high risk of perinatal depression.
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