Centre for Health Economics, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia.
Health Econ. 2022 Sep;31(9):2072-2089. doi: 10.1002/hec.4566. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
Billions of people live in urban poverty, with many forced to reside in disaster-prone areas. Research suggests that such disasters harm child nutrition and increase adult morbidity. However, little is known about impacts on mental health, particularly of people living in slums. In this paper we estimate the effects of flood disasters on the mental and physical health of poor adults and children in urban Indonesia. Our data come from the Indonesia Family Life Survey and new surveys of informal settlement residents. We find that urban poor populations experience increases in acute morbidities and depressive symptoms following floods, that the negative mental health effects last longer, and that the urban wealthy show no health effects from flood exposure. Further analysis suggests that worse economic outcomes may be partly responsible. Overall, the results provide a more nuanced understanding of the morbidities experienced by populations most vulnerable to increased disaster occurrence.
数十亿人生活在城市贫困中，许多人被迫居住在易受灾地区。研究表明，此类灾害会损害儿童营养状况并增加成年人发病率。但是，对于其对心理健康的影响，尤其是对贫民窟居民的影响，人们知之甚少。本文我们估计了洪水灾害对印度尼西亚城市贫困成年人和儿童的身心健康的影响。我们的数据来自印度尼西亚家庭生活调查和非正规住区居民的新调查。我们发现，城市贫困人口在洪灾后会出现更多的急性疾病和抑郁症状，负面的心理健康影响持续时间更长，而城市富裕人群则没有因暴露在洪水中而产生健康影响。进一步的分析表明，更糟糕的经济结果可能部分是造成这种情况的原因。总的来说，研究结果更细致地了解了最容易遭受灾害增加影响的人群所经历的疾病。
