Mississippi Child and Family Health Study — Toplines

During the period of August 6 through August 26, 2006, the Columbia-led Mississippi Child & Family Health Study conducted an assessment among Mississippi residents displaced or heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The purpose of the study was to gather information that could inform local, state, and federal policymakers about the health and social service needs of displaced and impacted populations living in transitional community-based settings, such as trailer parks, and in community settings that had been heavily damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. Using FEMA damage assessment maps, the team randomly sampled 150 census blocks across the three most heavily impacted counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Each of the census blocks contained between 1 – 80 housing units, with an average of 8 – 10 housing units. An advance team visited each of the census blocks and drew maps of all the housing “footprints,” whether existing housing structures, or as in many cases, concrete slabs where houses had previously existed. The field team interviewed residents of 243 households in these community settings. Additionally, based on lists of trailer parks provided by FEMA, thirteen trailer parks were randomly selected, stratified by size and whether they were FEMA-developed parks or pre-existing commercial parks. The field team interviewed 333 residents in the selected parks. The respondents reported on their health status and health care needs, described their children’s physical and mental health needs, and talked about the resources available to them as well as their plans for the future. The 576 households sampled are representative of approximately 14,000 households in the heavily impacted areas, encompassing over 37,000 individuals. The margin of error for most of the reported rates is + 4 points. Among households with children present, one child was randomly selected using a Kish sampling technique, and the adult respondent was asked about the child’s health. Results reporting child-level data have been weighted proportional to the number of children in the household.