The data for this study were collected as part of a larger, population-based, representative study of persons living in the 23 southernmost counties of Mississippi prior to Hurricane Katrina. This is not a new or inventive way of studying this issue, as a representitive study of a population is one of the classic ways social research is conducted.
This article was published throught the National Institute of Public Health's Public Access database. The NIH makes all of the peer reviewed articles and studies that it funds available to the public on this platform "to advance science and improve public health."
This study was funded by the National Institute of Health, which is why it was made available through their public access database.
This study sought to establish the prevelance and corelation of intimate partner violance victimization in the six months before and after Hurricane Katrina. The studies conducted showed the following results:
The percentage of women reporting psychological victimization increased from 33.6% to 45.2 %.
The percentage of men reporting psychological victimization increased from 36.7% to 43.1%
Reports of physical victimization increased from 4.2% to 8.3% for women, but were unchanged for men.
The studies also showed that various socioeconomic standings from before the storm had significant impacts on how intimate partner violance increased after the storm.
This study is primarily about vulnerable populations, showing that in areas where people have been effected by major disasters, domestic violance increases, especially in households with lower overall socioeconomic status.
Data from this study could be an indicator to public health officials of a new, possibly overlooked, aspect to health in the aftermath of a major disasterm and could be used to create new programs or policies to combat this in the future.
According to Google Scholar, this study has been cited 21 times in various papers on the topics of mental health in the face of disaster and studies on domestic violance.