title: The effects of spatially varying earthquake impacts on mood and anxiety symptom treatments among long-term Christchurch residents following the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes, New Zealand.
abstract: This study investigates the effects of disruptions to different community environments, community resilience and cumulated felt earthquake intensities on yearly mood and anxiety symptom treatments from the New Zealand Ministry of Health's administrative databases between September 2009 and August 2012. The sample includes 172,284 long-term residents from different Christchurch communities. Living in a better physical environment was associated with lower mood and anxiety treatment rates after the beginning of the Canterbury earthquake sequence whereas an inverse effect could be found for social community environment and community resilience. These results may be confounded by pre-existing patterns, as well as intensified treatment-seeking behaviour and intervention programmes in severely affected areas. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that adverse mental health outcomes can be found in communities with worse physical but stronger social environments or community resilience post-disaster. Also, they do not necessarily follow felt intensities since cumulative earthquake intensity did not show a significant effect.
authors: GeoHealth Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand; Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI), Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia. Electronic address: daniel.hogg@pg.canterbury.ac.nz.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Hogg
authors: GeoHealth Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand; Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI), Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia. Electronic address: simon.kingham@canterbury.ac.nz.
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Kingham
authors: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand; The Natural Hazards Research Platform (NHRP), New Zealand. Electronic address: thomas.wilson@canterbury.ac.nz.
authors: Thomas M
authors: TM
authors: Wilson
authors: University of Otago, PO Box 4345, Christchurch, New Zealand; Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), New Zealand. Electronic address: michael.ardagh@cdhb.govt.nz.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Ardagh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D012042:Registries; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012931:Social Environment; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Community disruption; Community resilience; Felt earthquake intensity; Mental health; Natural hazard disaster