Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG)
Funded By:
Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative
Funding Cycle:
RFP-IV
Research Group:
Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC)
Melissa Finucane
RAND Corporation
finucane@rand.org
Community, Resilience, Trauma, Health, Well-being
Abstract:
The purpose of the Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG) was to assess the long term well-being of residents of Gulf coast communities. Respondents were asked about dimensions of well-being including mental health, physical health, health care utilization, traumatic experiences, oil spill exposure, and alcohol use. Additional questions were asked about participation in local organizations, sources of information, employment, resource networks, risk perceptions, and demographics. STRONG collection entailed telephone interviews that occurred from April to August 2016. The total sample comprised 2,520 respondents in 56 counties in five states (Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi) within close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.
Suggested Citation:
Finucane, Melissa, Matthew R. Lee, and Rajeev Ramchand. 2018. Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG). Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N76971Z0
Publications:
Purpose:
To assess the long term well-being of residents of Gulf coast communities.
Data Parameters and Units:
The file imputation.csv: Income value (ses2_i, 1-8); Imputation number (imputation); Indicator that SES2 was imputed (imp_ses2, 0=Not imputed or 1=Imputed); Respondent ID number (respid). The file strong.csv: Column A: Respondent ID number (respid); Column B to H: data from questionnaire survey related to participation in local organizations. For this question set, respondents were asked whether they participated in service and volunteer organizations, recreational groups, political and civic groups, job-related organizations, religious-oriented groups, or other types of organizations (comm1, comm2, comm3, comm4, comm5, comm6, comm7) Column I to Q: data from questionnaire survey related to the source of information. For this question set, respondents were asked to select their primary source of information about current events. They were presented with a list of possible sources: television, internet, print (newspapers, magazines), radio, word-ofmouth, or another specified source (sqi1, sqi1_other, trust1, trust2, trust3, trust4, trust5, trust6, trust7) Column R to V: data from questionnaire survey related to employment. For this question set, respondents were asked about their employment status. Specifically, they were asked whether they were employed full time or part-time, were unemployed and looking for work, were not employed and not looking for work, or were retired or on disability. If respondents reported that they were working full or part-time, they were then asked the kind of business or industry in which they work, as well as what kind of work they perform (emp1; imp_emp1, ind1, occup1, emp2) Column W to AF: data from questionnaire survey related to resource networks. For this question set, respondents were asked about whether the people emotionally closest to them (both locally and extra-locally) could provide them with help and support. Respondents were asked to consider the 20 people most emotionally close to them, and how many of these 20 people lived nearby. Respondents were then asked how many of the emotionally close people residing nearby and those who do not live nearby would be willing to offer support by 1) assisting with payment for essential expenses, 2) providing temporary housing, and 3) providing transportation to medical appointments (locnet1, locnet2, locnet3, locnet4, awaynet1, awaynet2, awaynet3, awaynet1, awaynet2, awaynet3) Column AG to AM: data from questionnaire survey related to financial capability. For this question set, respondents were asked 1) how difficult it is for them to cover their bills and expenses, 2) whether they could cover their expenses for three months in the event of an emergency, and 3) how confident are they in their ability to come up with $2,000 in the event of an unexpected need (fcap1, imp_fcap1, fcap2, imp_fcap2, fcap3, imp_fcap3, fcap4) Column AN to AR: data from questionnaire survey related to risk perceptions. For this question set, respondents were asked 1) How likely was it that the DHOS impacted respondents’ or an immediate family member’s physical health, 2) How dangerous was the DHOS for respondents’ or an immediate family member’s physical health, and 3) How worried were respondents concerning the ongoing impacts of the DHOS on their or an immediate family member’s physical health (prisk1, prisk2, prisk3, prisk4, prisk5) Column AS to BJ: data from questionnaire survey related to oil spill exposure. For this question set, respondents were asked 1) whether anyone in their immediate families was employed in the oil and gas, fishing and seafood, or tourism industries at the time of the DHOS, as well as whether the respondent worked in the oil spill cleanup activities on the shoreline or in the water, 2) whether or not their immediate families had experienced DHOS related effects across several domains: property damage, commercial fishing interruption, disrupted hunting, fishing, and gathering activities, disrupted exercise and recreation patterns, affected dietary or eating patterns, loss of money, job loss or disruption, and the filing of claims for economic damages (emp3, emp4, ind2, occup2, ind3, ind4, ind5, ose1, ose2, ose3a, ose3b, ose4a, ose4b, ose5, ose6, enrg1, job1, claim1) Column BK to BP: data from questionnaire survey related to physical health. For this question set, respondents were asked a series of questions to gauge their perceptions about their current physical health, using measures of general health, health change, and role limitations. To measure general health, respondents were asked to rate their health. To measure health change, they were asked to compare their current physical health with that of one year ago. To measure role limitations, respondents were asked to answer yes or no questions regarding whether or not they had experienced any disruptions to their normal activities (ph1, ph2, ph3, ph4, ph5, ph6) Column BQ to BS: data from questionnaire survey related to alcohol use. For this question set, respondents were asked 1) How often they drink alcohol, 2) How much they drink in a typical day, 3) How often they have more than six drinks on one occasion. The summation of these questions results in a scale indicating potential alcohol misuse (audit1, audit2, audit3) Column BT to CQ: data from questionnaire survey related to trauma. For this question set, respondents were asked about their experiences with various forms of traumatic events they experienced as adults. Those who reported any experiences since age 18 were asked whether the experiences occurred within the preceding 12 months (vict1, vict1a, vict2, vict2a, vict3, vict3a, vict4, vict4a, vict5, vict5a, vict6, vict6a, vict7, vict7a, vict8, vict8a, vict9, vict9a, vict10, vict10a, vict11, vict11a, vict12, vict12a) Column CR to DA: data from questionnaire survey related to mental health. For this question set, respondents were asked a few questions to assess three types of mental health conditions. 1) Depression: For this, the Patient Health Questionnaire was used to ask whether respondents, in the past two weeks, had “little interest or pleasure in doing things” and if they were “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.” Respondents are scored based on the prevalence of these symptoms. 2) Anxiety: For this, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire was used to ask whether respondents, in the past two weeks, had been “feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge,” or whether they had experienced “not being able to stop or control worrying.” Respondents are scored based on the prevalence of these symptoms. 3) Illness anxiety: For this respondents were asked the frequency with which they had experienced six different symptoms associated with illness anxiety (phq1, phq2, gad1, gad2, w1, w2, w3, w4, w5, w6) Column DB to DJ: data from questionnaire survey related to health care utilization health. For this question set, respondents were asked a series of questions about their health care coverage and use of health services. First, respondents were asked whether they have any kind of health care coverage. Then, they were asked whether there is a particular health care office they can visit when they are sick or need advice. If they said no, they were asked why. Next, respondents were asked how many different visits they made to an emergency room or urgent care facility or whether they had visited mental health professionals in the past 12 months (hutil1, imp_hutil1, hutil2, hutil3a, hutil3b, hutil3c, hutil3d, hutil3e, hutil3f, hutil1, imp_hutil1, hutil2, hutil3a, hutil3b, hutil3c, hutil3d, hutil3e, hutil3f) Column DK to EQ: data from questionnaire survey related to demographics. For this question set, respondents were asked a series of demographic questions to further understand resilient populations. Respondents were asked about their 1) core demographics like age, ethnicity, race, educational attainment, 2) household characteristics, 3) sexual identity, 4)military and veteran status, and 5) religiosity (gendr, imp_gndr, age, imp_age, hispanic, imp_hispanic, ethnica, ethnica_other, white, black, aian, asian, pacific, imp_race, race1a, race1a_other, race1b, race1b_other, race1c, race1c_other, race1d, race1d_other, race2, marital, imp_marital, child1, child2, ses1, imp_ses1, ses2, sor1, rel1, vet1) Column ER: dwr (Respondent was resident of the region at time of Deepwater Horizon, here 0=No, 1=Yes); Column ES: Weight_post_total (Weight for full sample). The file codebook.txt: codebook contains information about the survey questionnaire, variable descriptions, and code values used in the data files. The related data with a follow-up survey of individuals who participated in this dataset (STRONG I) are available under GRIIDC Unique Dataset Identifiers (UDIs): R4.x266.000:0013 [DOI: 10.7266/1D4HS43N; STRONG II, Texas] and R4.x266.000:0014 [DOI: 10.7266/6QDWMGMK; STRONG II: Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi]. Please note that this dataset contains two versions. Updated files (2021-12-01; Version 2) have unique respondent identifiers that can be merged with the STRONG II datasets to perform longitudinal analyses, while version 1 files include participant identifiers that would not allow for a merge with other waves of data.
Methods:
Data were collected via telephone interviews conducted from April 22 to August 6, 2016. The sample is a randomly selected, representative group of adults residing in 56 counties and parishes in close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico across five states. The total sample includes a traditional landline telephone sample of 1,617 respondents and a cell phone sample of 903 respondents, resulting in a combined sample size of 2,520 respondents. Several sociodemographic variables (employment status, financial capability, health care coverage, gender, age, Hispanic status, race, marital status, and education) were singly imputed. Income had more missing cases, and was multiply imputed. Weights are included to improve the representativeness of the sample to the regional population profile. A base weight was calculated based upon probability of selection. This base weight was then adjusted based on several population parameters (age, race, Hispanic, education, household income, gender) using benchmark values from the 2012-2016 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates.
Provenance and Historical References:
This dataset was initially published on 2018-08-10 (STRONG_Version_1_Published_2018-08-10) and was updated again on 2021-12-01 (STRONG_Version_2_Updated_2021-12-01). Updated data files have corrected respondent identifiers that allow the data to be merged with the STRONG II datasets to perform longitudinal analyses.