Psychological Symptoms in Older Adults Following Natural Disaster: Nature, Timing, Duration, and Course

Abstract

Using a prospective design with five follow-up intervals, the study addressed questions regarding the timing of onset, duration, course, and nature of psychological reactions to natural disaster. As participants in a statewide panel study, more than 200 older adults were interviewed both before and after two distinct floods occurred in southeastern Kentucky in 1981 and 1984. Exposure to these incidents, which differed in overall intensity, was assessed at both the individual and community levels. Personal loss was associated with short-term increases in negative affect, limited to one year postflood. Longer-term effects were more dependent on the level of community destruction. Exposure to high levels of community destruction was related to decreased positive affect up to two years postdisaster, whereas exposure to high levels of both community destruction and personal loss was predictive of increased negative affect for two years.