142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Online Program

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

301257
Models of Prenatal Care in a Long-term Post-disaster Recovery Area

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Gloria Giarratano, APRN, CNS, PhD , School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA
Emily W. Harville, PhD , School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Dept of Epidemiology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Veronica Barcelona de Mendoza, MSN, MPH, RN, APHN-BC , School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Jane Savage, RN, PhD, CNE, LCCE, FACCE , Nursing, Loyola Unviversity of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Charlotte Parent, RN, MHCM , New Orleans Health Department, New Orleans, LA
Background:  The objective of this study was to compare the health of prenatal women who accessed the New Orleans Healthy Start program to those who only used traditional prenatal care (PNC) during a period of long-term recovery from the Hurricane Katrina disaster (2010-12).

Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study recruited 402 prenatal women (24-40 weeks) from prenatal clinics and classes. There were 120 women who reported using Healthy Start services to supplement PNC, and 282 used only traditional PNC.  Measures were obtained to determine, past hurricane experience, hurricane recovery, perceptions of prenatal care, mental health, and birth outcomes.

Results: Women accessing Healthy Start-New Orleans were more socially “at risk” (younger, lower income, not living with a partner, African American) and lived through more hurricane trauma (45% feared for life; 33% walked through floodwater, 68% damage to home) than women in traditional PNC (27%, 19.3%, 49.8%, respectively). Women using Healthy Start reported higher depression (40%) and PTSD (15%) than women in traditional PNC (29% depression; 6.1 % PTSD). Although both groups had mental health needs, women using Healthy Start reported more use of counseling, support services and prenatal education in self-care than did women in traditional PNC. Birth outcomes were similar in the two groups.

Conclusion: It is imperative that all prenatal care delivery systems in disaster recovery areas include mental health and social support services, such as those delivered through the federal Healthy Start Program. Safety net organizations should partner with prenatal care providers to enhance psychosocial support in post-disaster environments.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Describe health risks and needs of pregnant women living in a long term post-disaster environment. Compare health outcomes of pregnant women living in a post-disaster recovery environment and using the federal Healthy Start program to those women using only traditional prenatal care.

Keyword(s): Prenatal Care, Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator of the grant/study in which the findings of the study will be reported. I participated in data collection and analysis of the findings. I am an advanced practice RN (clinical specialist in maternal-infant nursing) who has worked in care of childbearing women for 30 years in clinical settings and academia.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2041.0: Poster Session: Policy & Finance and Health Services Research