Observational study reveals distinct mental health trajectories across disaster loss profiles in older adults, highlighting the critical impact of compounded resource deprivation.
Key Points
To evaluate patterns of post-disaster resource loss and their association with mental health outcomes among older adults two years after Hurricane María.
Conducted face-to-face interviews with older adults (N=154) between 2019 and 2020 in Puerto Rico.
Used latent class analysis to identify distinct typologies of loss across housing, food, and financial resources.
Two-thirds of participants experienced home damage, and 47% experienced food loss.
Latent class analysis identified three distinct loss profiles: home damage, displacement, and multi-loss.
Participants experiencing home damage alone reported better mental health outcomes compared to those in the multi-loss group.