Resilience and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Flood Affected Farmers of Kerala, India

Abstract

Background: In mid-August 2018, Kerala witnessed the worst floods since 1924 due to abnormally high rainfall and simultaneous release of water from its dams, resulting in extreme flooding in 13 of 14 districts in the State. The large-scale flooding impacted millions of people and caused nearly 400 deaths as well as immense damage to property. This was followed by flooding yet again in August 2019, thereby triggering further damage. Farmers whose crops got completely wiped out were one group that were severely affected. This study investigated the presence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in farmers and also checked the relationship between PTSD and resilience. A purposive sample of 100 farmers from the Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta district of Kerala which were severely affected were taken. Data was collected through the PTSD-8, Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) along with sociodemographic data and flood related information. Data was analyzed to find that there was a high incidence of PTSD among the farmers (74%). Prevalence of PTSD was higher in interior Pathanamthitta than in coastal Alappuzha which was used to flooding due to its proximity to the sea and river mouth. The flood related variables such as level of damage did not have significant correlation with PTSD. However there was significant negative correlation between PTSD and resilience (r=- 0.64).