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Staying Healthy

Post-Katrina Health Concerns Linger

POSTED: 3:15 pm PDT August 29, 2008
UPDATED: 4:34 pm PDT August 29, 2008

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina left millions of Gulf Coast residents homeless or displaced to other communities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency established trailer parks designed as temporary homes, but three years later, thousands of people still live there.

A new survey found depression rates are sky high among trailer park residents -- nearly six in 10 have major depression, a risk factor for suicide.

Chronic health issues are also common. Eighty percent of households had an adult with a chronic health problem such as heart disease, diabetes or asthma, and 58 percent had at least one child affected as well.

Treating their illnesses has proved a problem for many residents. Lack of health insurance, a common problem even before the storm, has only gotten worse -- 15 percent of those surveyed said they had lost health insurance since arriving at the trailer park.

Around one-quarter reported delaying or going without treatment due to insufficient funds. Researchers suggested one solution might be mobile health units that could travel among trailer parks to provide care.

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