Psychological symptoms and quality of life in a population living in the "New Towns" of L'Aquila after he 2009 earthquake

Abstract

Background: Following the earthquake in L'Aquila of 04.06.2009 more than 65,000 people lost their homes. In order to provide rapid accommodation to those people, the Italian Government implemented the CASE project (Complex Anti-seismic Sustainable Environment-friendly), with the construction of 19 "New town" in the surrounding areas of the city. The New towns are built in rural areas, far from the center of the city, without  many basic services. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of mental disorders, the levels of psychological symptoms and quality of life in a sample of the population living in such reality.

Methods: Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA), were used.

Results: 107 people were interviewed. The mean scores of the GSI of the BSI were 0.70 (SD=0.55). The total score of the IES-R scale was used and the cut-off represented by the 33 value, was exceeded by 59.81% of the sample. The average value was 37.85 (SD=19.49) (range 0-83). 14 people of them (21.88%) obtained an average value ≥ 60. The mean score on the MANSA was 4.5 (SD=0.98), range 1.8-6.3.

Conclusion: From the results, it appears that this housing solution could be an additional element of trauma that overlaps with that suffered during the quake.