Household Water Insecurity and Depression Symptoms among Individuals Exposed to Hurricanes Maria and Fiona
Publication: Construction Research Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Water insecurity is a condition that arises when individuals lack access to a sufficient, dependable, and safe supply of water to meet their fundamental needs for sanitation, hygiene, and drinking. In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico’s water infrastructure, resulting in increased water insecurity, potentially contributing to mental health problems such as depression. This study examines the correlation between household water insecurity measured using the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale and the depression levels measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale of individuals residing in Puerto Rico. To achieve this goal, we conducted 154 surveys with respondents in Puerto Rico from May to July 2022. Preliminary findings from multiple linear regression analyses indicate a potential association between depressive symptoms among residents and water insecurity. The findings of this study highlight the importance of increasing access to clean piped water within residential homes. To achieve this, future research could explore potential options such as revising water distribution system requirements and enforcing federal water quality standards in Puerto Rico. By implementing these measures, policymakers and relevant authorities can work towards mitigating water insecurity and ensuring a safer and more reliable water supply for the population.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Bigas, H. (2012). The global water crisis: Addressing an urgent security issue. United Nations University-Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Bolin, B., and Kurtz, L. C. (2018). Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Disaster Vulnerability. In H. Rodríguez, W. Donner, & J. E. Trainor (Eds.), Handbook of Disaster Research (pp. 181–203). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4_10.
Brown, T. N., Donato, K. M., Laske, M. T., and Duncan, E. M. (2013). Race, Nativity, Ethnicity, and Cultural Influences in the Sociology of Mental Health. In C. S. Aneshensel, J. C. Phelan, & A. Bierman (Eds.), Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health (pp. 255–276). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_13.
Dos Santos, S., Adams, E. A., Neville, G., Wada, Y., de Sherbinin, A., Mullin Bernhardt, E., and Adamo, S. B. (2017). Urban growth and water access in sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, challenges, and emerging research directions. Science of The Total Environment, 607–608, 497–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.157.
Garcia, I. (2021). Puerto Rico’s Outmigration and the Deterioration of Economic Conditions As Identified With National Debt. Centro Journal, 33(2), 94–125.
Golden, J., Conroy, R. M., Bruce, I., Denihan, A., Greene, E., Kirby, M., and Lawlor, B. A. (2009). Loneliness, social support networks, mood and wellbeing in community-dwelling elderly. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(7), 694–700. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2181.
Hermanns, N., Kulzer, B., Krichbaum, M., Kubiak, T., and Haak, T. (2006). How to screen for depression and emotional problems in patients with diabetes: Comparison of screening characteristics of depression questionnaires, measurement of diabetes-specific emotional problems and standard clinical assessment. Diabetologia, 49(3), 469–477. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-005-0094-2.
Jepson, W. E., Wutich, A., Colllins, S. M., Boateng, G. O., and Young, S. L. (2017). Progress in household water insecurity metrics: A cross‐disciplinary approach. WIREs Water, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1214.
Kangmennaang, J., and Elliott, S. J. (2021). Linking water (in)security and wellbeing in low-and middle-income countries. Water Security, 13, 100089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2021.100089.
Lal, R. (2015). World Water Resources and Achieving Water Security. Agronomy Journal, 107(4), 1526–1532. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj15.0045.
Lane, K., Charles-Guzman, K., Wheeler, K., Abid, Z., Graber, N., and Matte, T. (2013). Health Effects of Coastal Storms and Flooding in Urban Areas: A Review and Vulnerability Assessment. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2013, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/913064.
Leu, J., Yen, I. H., Gansky, S. A., Walton, E., Adler, N. E., and Takeuchi, D. T. (2008). The association between subjective social status and mental health among Asian immigrants: Investigating the influence of age at immigration. Social Science & Medicine, 66(5), 1152–1164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.028.
Lloréns, H., García-Quijano, C. G., and Godreau, I. P. (2017). Racismo en Puerto Rico: Surveying perceptions of racism. Centro Journal, 29(3), 154–183.
Mallin, M. A., and Corbett, C. A. (2006). How hurricane attributes determine the extent of environmental effects: Multiple hurricanes and different coastal systems. Estuaries and Coasts, 29(6), 1046–1061. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02798667.
Matos-Moreno, A., Verdery, A. M., Mendes de Leon, C. F., De Jesús-Monge, V. M., and Santos-Lozada, A. R. (2022). Aging and the Left Behind: Puerto Rico and Its Unconventional Rapid Aging. The Gerontologist, gnac082. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnac082.
Mejia Manrique, S. A., Harmsen, E. W., Khanbilvardi, R. M., and González, J. E. (2021). Flood Impacts on Critical Infrastructure in a Coastal Floodplain in Western Puerto Rico during Hurricane María. Hydrology, 8(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology8030104.
Michaud, J., and Kates, J. (2017). Public Health in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Mohebbi, M., et al. (2018). Psychometric properties of a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D-10) scale for screening depressive symptoms in healthy community dwelling older adults. General Hospital Psychiatry, 51, 118–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2017.08.002.
Möller-Leimkühler, A. M. (2003). The gender gap in suicide and premature death or: Why are men so vulnerable? European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6.
Mushavi, R. C., et al. (2020). “When you have no water, it means you have no peace”: A mixed-methods, whole-population study of water insecurity and depression in rural Uganda. Social Science & Medicine, 245, 112561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112561.
Nelson, T., Poleacovschi, C., Ikuma, K., García, I., Weems, C. F., Rehmann, C., and Estes, K. (2023). Knowledge-behavior Gap in Tap Water Consumption in Puerto Rico: Implications for Water Utilities. Under Review ASCE OPEN Mutidisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering.
Oyeyemi, G. M., Bukoye, A., and Akeyede, I. (2015). Comparison of Outlier Detection Procedures in Multiple Linear Regressions. American Journal of Mathematics and Statistics.
Park, S. K., and Samples, T. R. (2017). Puerto Rico’s Debt Dilemma and Pathways Toward Sovereign Solvency. American Business Law Journal, 54(1), 9–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/ablj.12094.
Pawar, M. (2013). Water Insecurity: A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers. Australian Social Work, 66(2), 248–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2013.777969.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306.
Roque, A., Wutich, A., Brewis, A., Beresford, M., García-Quijano, C., Lloréns, H., and Jepson, W. (2021). Autogestión and water sharing networks in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María. Water International, 46(6), 938–955. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.1960103.
Rosinger, A. Y., and Young, S. L. (2020). The toll of household water insecurity on health and human biology: Current understandings and future directions. WIREs Water, 7(6), e1468. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1468.
Rutter, M., Dunn, J., Plomin, R., Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Maughan, B., Ormel, J., Meyer, J., and Eaves, L. (1997). Integrating nature and nurture: Implications of person–environment correlations and interactions for developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 9(2), 335–364. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579497002083.
Soto, I. R. (2020). Mutual Aid and Survival as Resistance in Puerto Rico: Faced with an onslaught of disasters, government mismanagement of life-threatening crises, and the injustices of colonialism, Puerto Rican communities have bet on their own survival. Their mutual aid efforts testify to both the power of grassroots organizing and the scale of state neglect. NACLA Report on the Americas, 52(3), 303–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2020.1809099.
Stevenson, E. G. J., Greene, L. E., Maes, K. C., Ambelu, A., Tesfaye, Y. A., Rheingans, R., and Hadley, C. (2012). Water insecurity in 3 dimensions: An anthropological perspective on water and women’s psychosocial distress in Ethiopia. Social Science & Medicine, 75(2), 392–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.022.
Stoler, J., Brewis, A., Kangmennang, J., Keough, S. B., Pearson, A. L., Rosinger, A. Y., Stauber, C., and Stevenson, E. G. (2021). Connecting the dots between climate change, household water insecurity, and migration. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 51, 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.02.008.
Tsai, A. C., Kakuhikire, B., Mushavi, R., Vořechovská, D., Perkins, J. M., McDonough, A. Q., and Bangsberg, D. R. (2015). Population-based study of intra-household gender differences in water insecurity: Reliability and validity of a survey instrument for use in rural Uganda. Journal of Water and Health, 14(2), 280–292. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2015.165.
Webb, P., and Iskandarani, M. (1998). Water Insecurity and the Poor: Issues and Research Needs. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3316741.
Wutich, A. (2009). Intrahousehold Disparities in Women and Men’s Experiences of Water Insecurity and Emotional Distress in Urban Bolivia. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 23(4), 436–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1387.2009.01072.x.
Wutich, A., Brewis, A., and Tsai, A. (2020). Water and mental health. WIREs Water, 7(5), e1461. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1461.
Wutich, A., et al. (2017). Advancing methods for research on household water insecurity: Studying entitlements and capabilities, sociocultural dynamics, and political processes, institutions and governance. Water Security, 2, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2017.09.001.
Young, S. L., Boateng, G. O., Jamaluddine, Z., Miller, J. D., Frongillo, E. A., Neilands, T. B., Collins, S. M., Wutich, A., Jepson, W. E., and Stoler, J. (2019). The Household Water InSecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale: Development and validation of a household water insecurity measure for low-income and middle-income countries. BMJ Global Health, 4(5), e001750. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001750.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Construction Research Congress 2024
Pages: 437 - 447
History
Published online: Mar 18, 2024
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.